In the early 1970s I was scoutmaster for a Boy scout troop in Camden, Maine. My troop had been given sometime earlier a 20-foot EM White guide model canoe. (From the looks and shape of the canoe I would say that it is the white-water version. I was told it was a White Canoe by the old scoutmaster at who’s farm in Northport the troops canoes were stored. He had been the scoutmaster for many years dating back into the 60’s, and may have been the original owner.)
Following a trip on the Allagash River I realized that this canoe was too big for my scouts to handle as they had done a great deal of damage to the canvas covering. I purchased the canoe from the Scout troop and went to work restoring it. My father was a wooden boat builder and was at that time working with a lot of West Epoxy coating, so after removing the old canvas covering, I then covered the canoe with fiber glass cloth and coated that with West Epoxy. Giving it the look of canvas with the strength of Epoxy. I also added a front seat as the old guide canoes didn’t have a front seat.
For the next 20 yrs this canoe went down a great many white-water rivers and many lakes in Maine. For the next few years she was my canoe for our annual spring downeast whitewater river outing, where we paddled down the Upper Machias river whitewater, the East Machias river, the Denis River, and the Saint Croia River. Every year she would paddle down the white water race section of the Georges River and at least once on the Kenduskeg River in Bangor.
When I got married, I took my new wife on a weekend trip down the Flagstaff Lake and another time we took a trip down the West Branch of the Penobscot River and down the Chesuncook lake. Another time we took a trip to Seboomook Lake, for a weekend camping and paddling.
She is currently ready to paddle although she could use a fresh coat of varnish and new coat of paint, and the seats need to be recaned. I don’t know the true age of this canoe as it was well used when it was given to the Scout troop, and could easily date to the early 50’s or late 40’ He had a second canoe that looked identical to the one described above but that canoe still had the EM White brass plaque on the bow