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tmackey

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need info on wood and canvas canoe serial #53873 16'. No manuf. id. Dark stained wood, black paint, silver stem bands, jointed overlap gunwales (not one piece, long mid-section gunwale, +-2' gunwale end sections, standing eyebolt on top of stern deck, countersunk seat mounting bolts.
 
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The Old Town canoe with serial number 53873 is a 16 foot long, CS (common sense or middle) grade, Otca model with western red cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, twenty inch maple decks, maple thwarts, maple seats, and a keel. It was built between April and May, 1919. The original exterior paint color was purple with a white stripe one inch below the gunwales. It shipped on June 6th, 1919 to Jackson, Michigan. A scan of this build record can be found by following the link at the attached thumbnail image below.

This scan and several hundred thousand others were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others. A description of the project to preserve these records is available at http://www.wcha.org/ot_records/ if you want more details. I hope that you will join or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See http://www.wcha.org/about-the-wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and http://store.wcha.org/WCHA-New-Membership.html to join.

It is possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match your canoe. It sounds like this canoe may have had some significant repairs over the years. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.

Benson
 

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Hi Benson,
I think you have it pretty close. I just spoke with the owner who lives in Kalamazoo, MI and he bought it from a fellow in Ely, MN who had evidently stripped and stained the wood to a dark stain. I'm going to speak with him later today to gather more information. The boat has a couple of minor leaks in the canvas and I'm going to repair them and a couple of other minor issues in the stems. All in all the boat is in very good condition.
Thanks for your help,
Tim Mackey
 
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