Kalamazoo Canvas Boat Company Canoe, Grand Canyon Village

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER AZ-86. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Canyon vicinity, Coconino County, Arizona Kalamazoo Canvas Boat Company Canoe is located at latitude: longitude: The point represents the building housing the Grand Canyon National Park Museum Collection. It was obtained from Google Earth on April 22, and there is no restriction on its release to the public. Date of Construction: Unknown, but used by David Rust prior to Builder: Kalamazoo Canvas Boat Company of Kalamazoo, Michigan, successor to the King Folding Canvas Boat Company1 Original Owner: Unknown

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER AZ-86. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Kalamazoo Canvas Boat Company Canoe is an example of a surviving collapsible metal-frame and canvas canoe utilized in the Glen Canyon area by renowned explorer and promoter David Dexter Rust. Description: The Kalamazoo Canvas Boat Company Canoe is a collapsible metal-rod frame canoe covered with a dark brown coated canvas that is secured to the top edges of the frame by metal rivets and staples.2 It measures 1 /2" long with a beam. Some of the metal rods have come loose from the frame and are hanging unattached. The canvas is also slightly worn. There are rope rings at the bow and stern. A folding wood combination thwart seat and oar locks are located in the middle of the canoe. A folding wood keel and floorboard is set inside the boat.

The boat is labeled on the inside front and back with the name Kalamazoo Canvas Boat Company. 1 King Folding Canvas Boat Company was famous for its patented folding canvas boat (Patent No. granted October For more information, see Scott M. Peters, Making Waves: Michigan s Boat Building Industry, (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, A copy of a catalog is available here: accessed May 2 Kalamazoo Canvas Boat Company Canoe has been accessioned as Catalog Number GRCA KALAMAZOO CANVAS BOAT COMPANY CANOE HAER No.

AZ-86 (Page 2) History: David Rust who is known to have used canvas canoes in the Glen Canyon area, once owned this boat.3 Rust was a placer miner and explorer, who established a tourist camp near the current Phantom Ranch in the Inner Canyon in installed a cableway across the Colorado River, and improved the trail to Bright Angel Canyon from the North Rim. The Glen Canyon National Recreation Area acquired this boat along with a similar canvas canoe and two wooden folding sets of floorboards from the Rust family with the assistance of Otis R. Dock Marston (who was friends with Rust) and Ken Sleight, both of whom were river runners and historians. In July both canoes and sets of floorboards were transferred to Grand Canyon National Park for inclusion in the historic boat collection.

From October to December the boats were stored in the Maintenance Warehouse. In December the park s historic boats were moved into a new storage area in the Powell Building.4

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER AZ-86. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The report is based on information from the Grand Canyon Museum Collection and the following sources. Martin, Tom. Chapter 5 Rust Canvas Canoes. On Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/444310568, accessed April Peters, Scott M. Making Waves: Michigan s Boat Building Industry, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER AZ-86. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Kalamazoo Canvas Boat Company Canoe was documented as part of the Historic American Engineering Record s Maritime Recording Program. The Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) is part of Heritage Documentation Programs, a division of the National Park Service. Todd Croteau, HAER Architect, served as project manager. Ryan Pierce produced the measured drawings in Grand Canyon National Park staff provided the written information for the historical report, which was formatted by Justine Christianson, HAER Historian, in 3 Utah Historical Quarterly, 28, pp. 307 references these Rust canvas fold boats.

4 Phantom Ranch, available online at Nature, Culture and History at the Grand Canyon website, accessed April Tom Martin, Chapter 5 Rust Canvas Canoes, on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/444310568, accessed April