"The original E.M. White guide model was a
superb canoe. Jerry Stelmok has upgraded it even further with painstaking
craftsmanship."- Bill Riviere
Today, what is left of the original E.M. White building forms are in the hands of the Island Falls Canoe Company, an independent proprietorship operated by Jerry Stelmok. In cooperation with Old Town, Stelmok crafts canoes on these still functional forms and sells them under the original E.M. White tradename. Canoes are carefully built to order one at a time, using only the finest straight-grained cedar, quality domestic canvas and traditional bronze and brass fastenings. The builder has been producing these canoes since aquiring the business in 1975, following a two-year wooden boatbuilding program on the Maine coast.
Stelmok has since built hundreds of canoes on the original forms, and carefully
replicated others for older models no longer in existence. He has taught and
demonstrated canoe building at such institutions as The Adirondack Museum, the Maine
Maritime Museum, the Wooden Boat School and Center for Wooden Boats. He is author of
"Building the Maine Guide Canoe" (International Marine Publishing Company, 1980), and
co-author, with Rollin Thurlow, of "The Wood & Canvas Canoe" (Harpswell Press, 1987).
His work has been featured in American Craft, Wooden Boat, Down East and Canoesport
Journal, among other nationally distributed magazines.
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| Jerry Stelmok at the shop | |
Laurie Stevens, as fine a detail person as can be found anywhere has been working at Island Falls Canoe for six years. Her specialty is building the exacting “Salesman’s Sample” models.
Andrea Myers is bolstering her considerable skills in computers and office management with a whole new bag of tricks concerned with building canoes. You might find her anywhere in the shop assisting on any project.
Jonathan Minott a graduate of College of the Atlantic and the Washington County Technical College Boatbuilding program, has spent several years on the coast in Southeast Harbor building boats the shop of renound builder of neary 50 years, Ralph Stanley. Now that Jonathan has moved inland, we are grateful to have his fine skills and attention to detail applied primarily to the building of the Old Town® dinghies
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