By Porter Lang
Start with the parts list. A canoe is not a mystery if you can name what it is made from.
The older design
The birchbark canoe sets the pattern. Wikipedia describes paper birch bark harvested in early spring, stripped off in one piece with wooden wedges. The frame uses white cedar ribs. The binding is watap, a lashing usually made from the roots of conifers such as white spruce, black spruce or cedar. The waterproofing is pitch from balsam fir. The same article gives a typical size of 4.3 metres and about 23 kilograms. It adds that the bark canoe served a 6,500-kilometre supply route from Montréal to the Pacific Ocean and the Mackenzie River, and stayed in use to the end of the 19th century.
The newer one
Wood-and-canvas construction developed in 19th-century North America. Wikipedia names makers that include Old Town, E. M. White, Peterborough and Chestnut, the last in New Brunswick. A Wooden Canoe Heritage Association article, published in 2019, describes the build in a short list: ribs and planking make the framework, canvas is stretched over the hull, a filler made of resins and compounds goes on, and then varnish.
A factory on King and Water
Wikipedia says the Peterborough Canoe Company was founded in 1892 by William H. Hill and Elihu Edwards, with James Z. Rogers managing. A Canadian boating magazine profile tells it differently. It says the company succeeded the Ontario Canoe Company, which closed after a fire in spring 1892, and that production began in 1893 in a factory complex at the corner of King and Water Streets. It names Colonel James Z. Rogers, who lived from 1842 to 1909, as president and managing director, and says W. A. Richardson took over after his death, with the Richardson family in control for the life of the firm. The two accounts agree on the year and the city. They differ on who stood at the start, so we give both.
The magazine says about 50 workers were employed in the early years, which it calls a relatively large operation, and that the canoes sold in Canada, England and Europe. Wikipedia describes the product as “wide board, cedar strip and cedar rib construction,” mostly canvas covered.
Buying the neighbours
The firm grew by absorbing others. Wikipedia lists three steps. In 1915 it acquired the William English Canoe Company. In 1923 it merged with the Chestnut Canoe Company to form Canadian Watercraft Ltd. In 1928 it bought the Canadian Canoe Company. The magazine says the firm kept separate brand names for the businesses it took in during the 1910s and 1920s.
Where the canoes went
Wikipedia says original Peterborough canoes are antique collectibles, with examples at the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough and at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall. A Canadian boating magazine news item says the museum was founded in 1997 on the collection of the late Professor Kirk Wipper. It names wood-and-canvas craft from Herald, Peterborough, Chestnut and Lakefield in the holdings, alongside dugouts, bark canoes and kayaks from many regions.
The Canadian Canoe Museum holds the collection in Peterborough. Check its own pages for current programs and hours.
What this means on a trip
Peterborough is a place to see how a thing is built in layers: frame first, then planking, then a skin, then the coatings that keep water out. Our reading: if you go, look at the ends of the hulls and the lines of the ribs, and ask what is wood and what is cloth. Nothing here depends on a price or a brand. The craft is the interest, and the collection is the proof that it mattered.
If you are planning a visit, check the museum’s own pages for current programs and hours; we have not checked either.
Roam first. Shop later.