Our Maine Heritage: Old Town canoes bound for Disneyland, 1956

It’s no secret that Old Town Canoes are known worldwide, but this picture from the past really cements that fact.

Sam Doucette of Old Town is shown above putting the finishing touches on one of two canoes the Old Town Canoe Company is completing this week for shipment to Disneyland, famed California resort operated by the Walt Disney organization. Thirty-foot war canoes, to be used for sightseeing, are third and fourth of their type to be built for Disneyland by the Old Town firm.  BANGOR DAILY NEWS FILE PHOOT BY CARROLL HALL

Sam Doucette of Old Town is shown above putting the finishing touches on one of two canoes the Old Town Canoe Company is completing this week for shipment to Disneyland, famed California resort operated by the Walt Disney organization. Thirty-foot war canoes, to be used for sightseeing, are third and fourth of their type to be built for Disneyland by the Old Town firm. BANGOR DAILY NEWS FILE PHOOT BY CARROLL HALL

As the caption explains, a worker at the venerable Old Town company was working on a pair of 30-foot war canoes that would be used by tourists at an attraction called “Disneyland.”

Disneyland itself was less than a year old when the photo appeared on June 19, 1956, and the two canoes under construction doubled the size of the resort’s “fleet” of Old Town canoes.

It’d be interesting to know what ever happened to those massive canoes.

John Holyoke

About John Holyoke

John Holyoke has been enjoying himself in Maine's great outdoors since he was a kid. Today, he's the Outdoors editor for the BDN, a job that allows him to meet up with Maine outdoors enthusiasts in their natural habitat. The stories he gathers provide fodder for his columns, and this blog.