Resources for Wood Canoe Enthusiasts

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WoodenBoat magazine and Messing About in Boats occasionally have articles about wood canoes, and are all-around good reading.

The Essential Wood Canoe Enthusiasts Library

• Boats and Boating in the Adirondacks by Hallie Bond. Contains excellent history of wood canoes, especially with regard to their influence on recreation in the Adirondacks. Also has a photographic catalog of every canoe and boat in the collection of the Adirondack Museum. Some study plans are presented, full size versions of which are available from the museum.

• Canoeing the Adirondacks with Nessmuck: The Adirondack Letters of George Washington Sears edited by Dan Brenan. Join Nessmuck as he galavants around the Adirondacks in several of Rushton's tiny cedar canoes. Was Nessmuck a freeloader? Decide for yourself!

• A Real Runabouts Review of Canoes: Cedar Planked and Canvas Covered by Bob Speltz. Capsule histories, with descriptions, photographs, and catalog pages, for sixteen wood canvas canoe manufacturers. A good place to start when identifying an old canoe, but suffers from a lack of notable manufacturers, including Morris, Rushton, Gerrish, Racine and Carleton.

• Rushton and His Times in American Canoeing by Atwood Manley. The definitive guide to J.Henry Rushton's life, business and canoes, and a good general history of canoeing. Includes some canoe plans, but they must be used with extreme caution, as they are quite flawed.

• Sailing Craft by Edwin J. Schoettle. Has a chapter with a partial history of decked sailing canoes in North America by Maurice Wilts.

• The Story of the Chestnut Canoe by Kenneth Solway. A history of one of Canada's most famous canoe builders. Includes reproductions of catalogs of various Canadian canoe companies, and gives the locations of extant Chestnut canoe forms.

• The Wood & Canvas Canoe by Jerry Stelmock and Rollin Thurlow. The essential reference for anyone interested in wood canoes. Mainly a building guide for new canoes, also covers restoration, history, and capsule summeries of selected manufacturers. Includes plans for Rollin's Cheemaun, Atkinson Traveler and Whisper canoes.

Catalog Reprints available through the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association.

• Carleton Canoes and Boats. Reprint of 1916 catalog.

• Chestnut Canoes. Reprint of the 1950 catalog.

• Kennebec Boat and Canoe Co. Originally printed ca.1914.

• Morris Canoes. Reprint of catalog ca. 1908.

• Old Town Canoes. 1910 catalog reprint for the oldest producer of wood canvas canoes.

• Peterborough Canoes. Reprints 1929 catalog and other selected material.

• The Rice Lake Canoe. Reprint of catalog from ca. 1916-1918.

• Rushton Indian Girl Canoes. Reprint of 1910 catalog describing Rushton wood canvas canoes, including the Indian Girl and American Beauty.

• Rushton's Rowboats and Canoes: the 1903 Catalog in Perspective by William Crowley. A reproduction of the 1903 catalog from the heyday of Rushton's canoe manufacturing. Also includes additional information.

• Sailing Canoes Reprint of 1935 pamphlet published by the American Canoe Association. Covers both open and decked sailing canoes.

Wood Canoe Building and Repair

• Building Lapstrake Canoes by Walt Simmons. Building guide for cedar lapstrake canoes, with an emphasis on Walt's double-paddle canoes.

• Building the Maine Guide Canoe by Jerry Stelmock. An earlier effort, makes a nice supplement to The Wood & Canvas Canoe. Some of the techniques have been updated in the later volume. No plans.

• Canoe and Boatbuilding for Amateurs by W.P. Stephens. Most recently published in 1903, this book is an essential reference for anyone interested in decked sailing canoes, by one who built them.

• More Building Classic Small Craft by John Gardner has a chapter entitled "Four Canoes" which describes building a Peterborough four-plank canoe, a Rushton smoothskin lapstrake Arkansaw Traveler, and two decked sailing canoes.

• Repairs by Walt Simmons. Discusses a wide variety of repairs to various boats and construction types. Makes reference to an Old Town Otca that Walt restored.

• Ultralight Boatbuilding by Tom Hill. Describes building canoes and small boats with glued plywood lapstrake construction. I highly recommend watching the companion video of the same name, as some techniques are better described than in the book.

• The Wood & Canvas Canoe by Jerry Stelmock and Rollin Thurlow. Guide for building the wood canvas canoe, and also discusses restoration. Contains plans for several of Rollin's canoes.

Bark Canoes

• The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America by Edwin Tappey Adney and Howard Chappelle.

• Birchbark Canoe by David Gidmark.

• Builder of Birch Bark Canoes by William Rossman. Story of Bill Hafeman.

• Building a Birchbark Canoe: The Algonquin Wabanaki Tciman by David Gidmark

• The Building of a Chippewa Indian Birch-bark Canoe Milwaukee Public Museum.

• Building a Strip Canoe by Gil Gilpatrick. Includes eight designs.

• Canoecraft by Ted Moores and Marilyn Mohr. Arguably the single best book on the modern stripper canoe, along with several nice canoe designs.

• The Stripper's Guide to Canoe Building by David Hazen. Includes full size station patterns. My understanding is that at least one is not fair and needs to be jiggered. Double check when setting up if you choose one of these designs.

• Paddle Making
  • Making Canoe Paddles in Wood by Graham Warren. This is a nifty book that describes making paddles; both single piece and laminated. Includes patterns for a variety of styles. Makes you want to run out to the garage and grab a drawknife....

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  Last modified by DJM 4/10/98