This boat has been in our family since the mid 40’s. My Grandfather was a Standard Oil distributer in northern Wisconsin. The story goes that he took this boat in trade on a fuel oil bill to settle the debt. The boat was hand built by a Native American with birch bark and pitch. The inside is a lattice design of cedar.
The boat measures at 10 feet long and 4 feet wide with a depth of only 12 inches. My feeling is that they would have used the boat to harvest wild rice.
This boat is in good condition but has a couple of cracks and holes. I have talked to museums, antique dealers and other craftsmen who make birch bark canoes and no one has ever seen or heard of a Birch Bark Row Boat.