Image © Canadian Canoe Museum

Red Canoe Donated to the Canadian Canoe Museum

The Mason family donated Bill Mason's treasured red Chestnut Prospector to the Canadian Canoe Museum (off-site link) in Peterborough Ontario, on June 17th, 1999. The canoe unveiling occured in conjunction with the museum's wide array of evening festivities, including music and refreshments to celebrate the launch of their new exhibits entitled The Grande Fur Trade Rendezvous.

Bill Mason loved his old canvas-covered wood canoes and used many of them throughout his career as a filmmaker, author and painter. But he always said his Chestnut Prospector was "the most versatile canoe ever made", and that if he "could only have one canoe it would be the original Chestnut wood-canvas 16' Prospector". He journeyed quietly through the wilderness in this canoe, treating it not just as a vehicle, but also as a subject, a symbol and a friend. Bill's Prospector has a lifetime of memories in it and if it could talk, all the little tears in the canvas, each broken rib and every cracked plank would have quite a story to tell.

Last Paddle Before Canoe was donated (off-site link), article on the Blazing Paddles web site.