Canoe Prices Over Time

Several factors led to the choice of an eighteen foot Guide model with open gunnels, canvas covering, and a keel in CS grade as the focus of this analysis. The first factor is that it has been included in every Old Town Canoe Company catalog known to exist. This ranges from the $26 one on page six of the 1901 Indian Old Town catalog shown in Figure Two to the $3395 one on page 7 of the 1997 catalog. Another factor which led to the selection of this model was its place in the middle of the range of canoe prices. The continuously changing mixture of models and options makes the calculation of an overall average canoe price impractical. However, an 18 foot Guide with open gunwales and a keel in CS grade has always been priced near the center of the price range so it does represent a typical price for all canoes. The last factor is that many other canoe manufacturers made similar models and often used the same name. The prices tended to be very competitive so the charts in Figure One and Figure Three could provide a way to estimate the price of a canoe from builders other than Old Town.

The letters "CS" stood for "Common Sense" and this grade is still available today. It was originally the middle grade between the top of the line AA grade and the no frills GS grade. The letters "GS" are presumed to stand for "Guides' Special." The AA grade was discontinued in the 1950s and the GS grade only lasted until the 1940s.

Several years had multiple price changes like the ones stamped on the front of the 1920 catalog shown in Figure Four. The highest prices reached in any given year were used in the charts shown in Figures One and Three . The canoe prices began diverge from the CPI inflation rate slowly over the next fifteen years until 1944. Then prices jumped 23% in 1945 and continued to out-pace inflation at a moderate rate until 1967 when the canoe prices really took off for the next thirty years.

There are undoubtedly many reasons for the canoe price changes but the people who made these decisions are no longer around to offer any explanations. It can be presumed that one of the primary factors was a decline in production which drove down the economies of scale. This point was emphasized during the energy crisis of the early 1970s when each canoe had to pay for one half of a barrel of oil to heat the factory during the winter. Clearly the price of each canoe could have been greatly reduced if the production levels could have allowed this and other fixed expenses to be spread across more canoes. The current levels of production (and better weather sealing of the factory) have reduced the heating oil expense to around four and a half gallons per canoe today. The drop in production associated with the start of Great Depression could account for the first departure from the general rate of inflation in the early 1930s. The second departure during the 1940s may reflect the transition into wooden boats and the introduction of aluminum canoes. The final departure in the late 1960s might correspond to another large drop in wood canoe production as fiberglass arrived.

There are very few consumer durable goods which have not changed dramatically in the past century. Most transportation, toys, furniture, and other major products are very different now from what they were in 1901. However, a wooden canoe from the Old Town Canoe Company today is nearly identical to the ones that they started advertising when Theodore Roosevelt was President.