THE PATHFINDER CANOE
Among the last camps in North America to primarily canoe trip in handmade 'canvas' canoes, Pathfinder owes its beautiful fleet to Chief Norton's early purchases along with his successors' ongoing commitment to the wood-canvas fleet.
Ontario maker and alum Jack Hurley rebuilt and new-built our 16-foot trip canoes.
Today, Bancroft canoemaker David Statten continues the practice he took over from Hurley and camp staff makers Graham England, Warren McDermott and Joe Egan.
OUR ISLAND CANOE SHOP
For nearly 30 years, Pathfinder canoes were repaired in Lodge One, or newly-born and restored at Hurley Canoe Works. In 2010, Camp owners Glenn Arthurs and Mike Sladden (owners 1999 - 2023) had camp's very own Canoe Shop built on the island. Located centrally at the front of camp, up-trail from the Trading Post (where all trips are planned and outfitted) and next to the PX cabin (camp's main office), the shop handles the wood fleet, with a full time canoe maker mentoring our staff.
The shop is fully equipped with tools and materials for our current maker, David Statten, create and repair beautiful cedar canvas canoes right here on-island.
Staff are shop-trained to repair, patch, re-paint, varnish or touch-up their boats. You can always head to the canoe shop to see what new project Dave is working on, and lend a helping hand.
OUR CANOE FLEET
Our canoe fleet is the camp's pride. We are one of the last camps in North America to primarily canoe trip in handmade canvas canoes. The 55 trip canoes are each named for an important person in Pathfinder history. Each summer, our Directors of Canoe Tripping and Directors of Canoeing hold a 'lottery' to assign boats to headmen, second men, and CITs.
Staff members canoe trip and care for their selected boat all summer. The staff take great pride in their boats, in charge of cleaning, mending, and caring for them all season.
This is a great Pathfinder tradition, instilling pride of ownership, canoe-care, and responsibility. Our staff pass the tradition along to campers, so they'll be ready when they become staff.
PATHFINDER CANOE BUILDERS
OVER THE YEARS
CHESTNUT CANOE
FREDERICTON, NB
While Pathfinder of course had wood canoes from 1914 onward, our trip canoe story begins with Bill Swift, Sr. who took over camp from Chief Norton in 1962 and purchased new Chestnut canoes from the famous New Brunswick factory. Roy Thrall and Mac Rand continued the canvas tripping tradition by hiring former camper/ staffman Jack Hurley to repair and eventually build new boats.
JACK HURLEY
HURLEY CANOE WORKS DWIGHT, ON
Jack started at Pathfinder as a camper in 1960 and worked his way up to headman. He worked for Swifty at Algonquin Outfitters and learned about canvas canoe repair with that fleet. He also met the famous local canoe maker Clarence Bogues. Jack rebuilt over a dozen trip canoes for Roy in the late ‘70s and began building new canoes to order from Mac in the 1980s.
WARREN MCDERMOTT
PATHFINDER CANOE SHOP
Glenn and Sladds built a wood canoe shop at Camp in 2010 and Warren moved from headman to canoe maker the following year. He worked with Jack Hurley on repair techniques, and eventually built his own canoes on an exact copy of Hurley’s canoe form, made by Stan Hack. Warren’s first complete new-build was named 'Jack and Peggy Hurley’.
JOE EGAN
PATHFINDER CANOE SHOP
After Warren, Joe moved from headman and CIT director to canoe maker in 2017. He repaired a number of boats and built the 'R.W. Eustis.'
DAVID STATTEN
BRASS TACKS CANOE WORKS
Our current canoe maker started at Pathfinder in 2018, but has lived in the Park all his life. David grew up at Taylor Statten Camps on Canoe Lake, and learned his craft from Dave Standfield there.
