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Our History

Preserving a Piece of the Past

The WCHA was founded in 1979 in Madison, Wisconsin by a group of canoe enthusiasts.  A year earlier, a birch bark canoe on top of a parked car had caught the attention of Jill and Jeff Dean, who were weekend paddlers of aluminum canoes.  They met the canoe builder and his wife, Tom and Karen MacKenzie. And "with that conversation," recalled the Deans, "though we didn't know it at the time, the seeds of the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association were planted."

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~ excerpt from article by Deborah Gardner in the June 2019 issue of Wooden Canoe celebrating the WCHA's 40th year

Photo Credit: Michael Grace

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