Chestnut Canoe Company

By the end of the nineteenth century, wealthy American "sports" had discovered the New Brunswick wilderness and arrived via the Saint John River in the Maine-built wood-canvas canoes of B.N.

[1] Brothers William and Henry Chestnut, inheritors of their father's hardware business, became aware of the interest in canvas-covered canoes but knew importing them from the United States would substantially increase price due to import duties.

[1] The Chestnut brothers hired boatbuilder Jack J. Moore to build a replica of a Morris canoe.

Old Town responded by filing a lawsuit and threatened to set up a factory of their own in Canada.

The last canoe, numbered 2 of 300 was sold to William Miller in Windsor, Ontario at the Canadian National Exhibition and was constructed after the plant had actually closed when he sent additional funds to have it completed.