Old Town Canoe
Est. 1898
Heritage & History
The Old Town Canoe Company was founded in 1898 in Old Town, Maine, a small city on the Penobscot River that had been a center of Native American canoe-building traditions for centuries before European settlement. The company's location was not coincidental — the Penobscot River and its lakes provided natural testing grounds, and the surrounding forests provided the cedar and canvas materials that defined early canoe construction.
Old Town began by building traditional wood-and-canvas canoes, the construction method that preceded modern synthetic materials. Over the following century, the company adopted fiberglass, Royalex, and ultimately three-layer polyethylene construction as materials technology advanced. Through every material transition, Old Town maintained its Maine manufacturing and its identity as the craft that defined recreational canoeing in America.
Made in Old Town, Maine
Old Town Canoe manufactures its canoes and kayaks in Old Town, Maine, where the company has operated since its 1898 founding. The Penobscot River remains outside the factory door — one of the longest continuous relationships between an American manufacturer and its natural test environment. The modern facility produces canoes and kayaks from three-layer polyethylene using rotational molding processes that were developed specifically for this application.
The three-layer construction process — a stiff structural foam core laminated between two polyethylene shells — produces a hull that is lighter than solid polyethylene, more impact-resistant than fiberglass, and capable of flexing over rocks without cracking. This construction technology, developed and refined at Old Town's Maine facility, set the standard for recreational canoe manufacturing.
What Sets Them Apart
Old Town's 125-plus years of canoe building have produced a design knowledge base that no newer manufacturer can match. The hull shapes in Old Town's canoe line — the Penobscot, the Discovery, the Camper — have been refined through generations of actual use on Maine's rivers and lakes by guides, recreational paddlers, and wilderness trippers. The proportions of each hull reflect what Old Town's designers learned from watching those boats perform in conditions that matter.
For American paddlers choosing a canoe, Old Town represents something beyond specification comparisons: it's the company that built the canoes that introduced most American families to paddling over the past century. The company's Maine manufacturing represents continuity with a craft tradition that predates the United States itself — the canoe as the original American wilderness vehicle, built on the same river where Maine's indigenous people developed the form.
Old Town Canoe Discovery 119 Solo Canoe
Old Town Canoe
Sports & Outdoors
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Old Town Canoe made in the USA?
Yes. Old Town Canoe manufactures 5 verified products in Old Town, ME. Old Town Canoe has built canoes and kayaks in Old Town, Maine since 1898, making it one of America's oldest continuously operating watercraft manufacturers and the definitive name in American canoeing heritage.
Where is Old Town Canoe manufactured?
Old Town Canoe is headquartered in Old Town, ME. Manufacturing takes place in Old Town, ME.
What Old Town Canoe products can I buy?
We carry 5 verified Old Town Canoe products across Sports & Outdoors. Every listing links directly to Amazon with verified American manufacturing.
When was Old Town Canoe founded?
Old Town Canoe was founded in 1898. Old Town Canoe has built canoes and kayaks in Old Town, Maine since 1898, making it one of America's oldest continuously operating watercraft manufacturers and the definitive name in American canoeing heritage.