Lineage of Bear Mt. Ranger Lines explained by Ron Frenette

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HighPlainsDrifter
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Lineage of Bear Mt. Ranger Lines explained by Ron Frenette

Post by HighPlainsDrifter »

I am building a Chestnut Prospector Ranger 15'. I selected this canoe because I wanted to build a canoe with history and I also wanted the sweet shape of the Ranger. The history portion of this build has me digging into the "flowering days" of Chestnut (I bought the book and have found good information on line also).

Bear Mountain offers 3 Chestnut Canoe Company plans (with lines taken by various individuals):
1) Bob's Special: Lines taken by Ted Moores 7/1993
2) Prospector Ranger 15': Lines taken by Ted Moores 1993
3) Prospector Fort 16': Lines taken by Bill Mason, drawn by Ted Moores

I am looking for a history lesson from the experts, so the questions are:

1) Lines were taken from existing canoes. Where are these canoes and are there pictures of the canoes from which the lines were taken? I would love to see a picture of an original Ranger 15'
2) I assume Bill Mason took the lines from his red Fort canoe. Is that true? (I know that canoe is in the Canadian Canoe Museum).
3) Why has the name Prospector (which once described a series of canoes) evolved to being (almost) solely associated with the Prospector 16' (Fort)? Was that from the personal preference of Mason? I have searched "Path of the paddle" for the name "Fort". I don't think Mason ever called his canoe anything but the Prospector.

The Prospector series were introduced in 1920's. There were 6 models:
Forest 12'
Fire 14'
Ranger 15'
Fort 16'
Gary 17'
Voyageur 18'

Scroll down to read Ron's answer this question
Last edited by HighPlainsDrifter on Wed Nov 16, 2011 10:06 pm, edited 4 times in total.
fonz
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Re: Lineage of Chestnut Canoe plans offered by Bear Mt.

Post by fonz »

great question, and I have no idea what is the answer. Mr Glen Smith has the answer to everything ? I am looking forward to his answer to your history question. look for a second opinion.
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HighPlainsDrifter
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Re: Lineage of Bear Mt. Chestnut Canoe Co. plans?

Post by HighPlainsDrifter »

I am still looking for answers to my lineage question and I think I found a connection between the Bear Mt Ranger 15' plans and Canadian Canoes. On CanadianCanoes.com I found an interesting bit of information under "custom built wood/canvas canoes".

One of the canoes offered by Canadian Canoes is the 15 foot CANADIAN EXPLORER --this canoe is 15' long with a 34" gunwale beam and is 13" deep. The canoe weighs 62 pounds. The model is built on the original mold acquired from the Chestnut Canoe Company after they closed. It was part of the Prospector group and known as the Ranger. Since Canadian Canoes makes a Ranger in woodstrip-epoxy, they decided to give the canoe a new name - the Canadian Explorer.

Speculation: In that Ron Frenette of Canadian Canoes decided that the 15' Ranger should be in the Bear Mountain Catalogue, could it be that the lines of the 15' Ranger offered by Bear Mountain were taken from an original Chestnut mold that is held by Ron? :thinking
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HighPlainsDrifter
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Re: Lineage of Bear Mt. Chestnut Canoe Co. plans?

Post by HighPlainsDrifter »

I wrote Ron Frenette about my question on how the lines of the Prospector Ranger 15’ were obtained (my lineage question). I became intrigued with the history of Chestnut Canoe Company and the longevity of the lines of canoes that they introduced in the 1920’s. Ron answered my question. For me, it is gratifying to know that the Bear Mountain plans for the Ranger 15’ come by way of an old mold that once was part of Chestnut Canoe Company.

Here is Ron’s reply:

Your assumptions are correct.

About 25 years ago, after Chestnut Canoe Co went into receivership, three of us made a bid to buy a number of the molds. As it turned out, we did not get any of the molds and that was actually good as most were quite beat up.

The man who bought several of the molds had planned to build canoes to keep the tradition but was not able to get started. He moved to the Toronto area and contacted us about the molds; we agreed to purchase the Ranger as it was the best of the 3. That said, we did have to do considerable work to make it functional.

I made a number of wood canvas canoes then contacted Ted and Joan at Bear Mountain with the suggestion that this would be a great addition to their offerings in wood strip canoes.

Steve Killing –who lives about 2 hours northwest of Toronto- came to the shop with his SmartScan device and took a lengthy series of readings both from the mold and from a finished canoe. From that data, he was able to create the mold sections for the wood strip canoe you are building and for a wood canvas mold. Hugh Stewart at Headwaters Canoes in Lakefield Quebec (near Ottawa) built a new mold last year and has been making canoes from it.

Ted elected to call the wood strip version the Prospector RANGER as I had decided earlier to leave historical designations alone and called the wood canvas version the Canadian Explorer. It is one sweet canoe in either construction.

Thanks for the kind word about the photo gallery-hope the images help you in your project.

The attached document scan shows details about many of the Chestnut canoes.

Ron Frenette
willo
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Re: Lineage of Bear Mt. Ranger Lines explained by Ron Frenet

Post by willo »

Great history lesson. Ron is a very heplpful guy , he helped me find some plans for a boat last year.All the people here that have built the ranger(myself 5) know just how great a canoe it is. Thanks for sharing.
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Bryan Hansel
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Re: Lineage of Bear Mt. Ranger Lines explained by Ron Frenet

Post by Bryan Hansel »

HighPlainsDrifter wrote:(I bought the book and have found good information on line also).
Where did you manage to find the book? I'd love to get a copy.
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HighPlainsDrifter
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Re: Lineage of Bear Mt. Ranger Lines explained by Ron Frenet

Post by HighPlainsDrifter »

Bryan
Try "Wooden canoe heritage association"
http://store.wcha.org/When-the-Chestnut ... lower.html
Price: $45.00 US

I like the way the book is written. I had to print out a map of New Brunswick so that I could follow along as the author took me through the country side. This is a story of a town, a way of life and of a canoe company.
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Bryan Hansel
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Re: Lineage of Bear Mt. Ranger Lines explained by Ron Frenet

Post by Bryan Hansel »

Perfect. Thanks!
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