Old Town Canoe

Old Town Canoe Company is a historic maker of canoes in Old Town, Maine. The company had its beginnings in 1898, in buildings constructed in 1890 for a shoe business, and was incorporated in 1901. Old Town entered the canoe market as a builder of canvas-covered wooden canoes. In the latter half of the 20th century, the company adopted more modern materials to maintain competitiveness. The company's plant was located along the Penobscot River.

Old Town is the largest and best known American canoe manufacturer. It was the leading manufacturer in the world before competitors such as Grumman pressured it by adopting aluminum for manufacture after World War II. It adjusted by moving to using fiberglass and plastic in the 1960s. Old Town also produces kayaks.

The Old Town Canoe Company "is one of the few Maine businesses to have achieved legendary status nationally". Old Town was featured by the Discovery Channel for an episode of Some Assembly Required (TV series) in 2008. In 1998 the company celebrated its 100th anniversary; with brass tacks and wood planks still used in the manufacture of its traditional lines of canoe. The town of Old Town and surrounding communities have hosted a week-long Old Town Hullabaloo canoe festival.

The first canoe built by Old Town Canoe was constructed in 1898 behind the Gray hardware store in Old Town, Maine. Unlike the pioneering canoe businesses established by E.H. Garrish, B.N. Morris, and E.M. White, the Grays were not canoe builders themselves, but were entrepreneurs who hired others to design and build their canoes. As it became more well established at the end of the 19th century, Old Town was incorporated in 1901by brothers George and Samuel Gray, and was run as a family business for decades.

The origins of canvas canoes can be traced to Maine and early canoe makers such as E.H. Gerrish and C.B. Thatcher of Bangor, B.N. Morris of Veazie and G.E. Carleton and E.M. White of Old Town, Maine. White's brother-in-law, E.L. Hinckley, became his working partner and provided the capital to open a large shop in Old Town, employing several men. The Carleton Canoe Company of Old Town built batteaux and bark canoes in the 1870s and "appears to be the only one of the batteaux and/or bark builders who switched to building canvas canoes and as such was the only one who brought any previous boat building experience to the industry." In addition to White and Carleton, there were several smaller companies building canvas-covered canoes in the town of Old Town when the Old Town Company began its venture. Carleton and White were later bought by the Old Town Canoe Company.

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