When an old, damaged wood and canvas canoe was donated to Tennessee Valley Canoe Club, Board Director BG Smith decided to fix it up. He planned to organize a team of volunteers and, hopefully, restore the canoe in time for the club’s annual Paddle School auction in early June.
“I thought, ‘I can work on my car; I can fix a fridge. This is going to be easy,'” says Smith, who quickly began to worry he was in over his head.
The canoe, a 1954 18-foot Old Town, had several broken ribs. The gunwales, or the rails that run along the top of the hull, needed to be replaced. The seat needed new webbing, and there was a palm-sized hole in the bottom, among other damaged areas.
Overwhelmed, Smith decided to start at the very beginning.
He traced the canoe to the factory where it was manufactured in Maine. He contacted the company and learned the canoe had been delivered to Winona Camp for Boys in Bridgton, Maine, the year it was made. There, campers had carved a “W” onto its deck, a marking still visible to Smith. The canoe remained at the camp for the next 40 years before being sold and eventually finding its way to Tennessee.