Time
Travelling in Canada
by Russ Hicks
by Russ Hicks
When I was told that the holder of said catalog had stopped at Giesler and
Sons in 1998 and that they were not only alive and well but building boats
just as they always had, the search for the boating equivalent of the "Holy
Grail" began to materialize. My first planned foray north of the Muskoka Lakes region ended abruptly with an unplanned bout with kidney stones. I didn't even make it down the driveway and so my trip to Canada was delayed one year. The summer of 2001 would provide time, opportunity, and health for a whirlwind circle tour of fifteen hundred miles in five days which would include stops at five boat builders and the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough. However, I digress.
One hour south of North Bay, Ontario, lies the sleepy town of Powassan. Lake Nipissing is just north of tour the Muskoka Lakes area is southwest, and Algonquin Park is southeast. The B. Giesler and Sons buildings have seen better days. Two "E's" and an "O" are missing on the building facade. Window glass is broken and missing. Roof leaks over the decades have stained the ceiling. But the unmistakable aroma of cedar and steam fill the air. The staccato sound of tack hammers punctuates the interior. Craftsmen on a mission which began in 1921 are still building boats the way Barney Giesler used to. On July 30 we rolled to a stop outside of the Giesler and Sons Boat Builders shop. My wife and mother-in-law (YES!) accompanied me on this canoe-filled trip. Only grandson Jerry Giesler was in the shop at noon. "It's lunch time," he proclaimed. His father, three uncles, and three other skilled boat builders had gone home for lunch. Jerry invited me to "help yourself' and look around while he, too, would leave. And with that he left. Lights were left on, doors were left open and unlocked, and I was invited to “wander to my heart's content."
Stepping into the shop was a step back four decades when Barney and his four sons were building boats. The four "boys" (now in their seventies) still use the same 1962 catalog and only change the price insert (“If it ain't broke, why fix it?”).
Inside the shop were a dozen boats and canoes in various stages of construction.
On trailers out back were six Giesler strippers either in on trade, up for
sale, or in for repairs. Giesler's primary business comes from the tourist
and fishing camps on and around Lake Nipissing. Over one thousand Gieslers
are still in use every summer in the immediate locality alone. Nested in
the storage buildings were the 14' Wherry rowboat, the 12' and 14' cartops,
four models of canoes, and their big water boats. Gieslers run from the
diminutive 12' Fox to the 20' Lake Huron capable of taking a 100 hp outboard!
A Lake Huron special order was being varnished during my visit. The buyer
had "the boys" add six inches to its normal 90" beam and six inches to the
normal 40" depth! Everywhere I turned history and the 21st century seemed
to collide in this incongruity amid the sawdust. Old Town Canoe turns out about fifty wood and canvas canoes each year. Every year Giesler builds between 150-200 boats and canoes and they seldom ever have any boats or canoes in stock for a point-of-purchase whim! Only Old Town has been in continuous business building wooden boats and canoes longer than Giesler. And now the third generation (Jerry) will be maintaining the tradition. And a tradition it is. The slock and stem room the steamer, the finish room the office and "showroom", the storage buildings and forms have been in constant use for eighty years.
Giesler boats and canoes are built for use and practicality. They don't pretend to make museum pieces. These watercraft are meant to be used hard and often. The Lake Nipissing fishing camps put their Giesler Lake Nipissing Specials (18' Loa, 60" beam, 24" depth, 60" deck, four seats) in the water in May where they remain until October. Walleye by the thousands flop around in the bonoms of these boats during their work-a-day service lifetime. And a used Giesler is even a greater bargain
than
a new one which is bargain to begin with! With a favorable exchange rate,
one could buy FOUR Giesler canoes for the price of ONE new Old Town or Langford!
Television used to run commercials for the old Smith-Barney Investment Brokers where the tag line was S-B made money the old fashioned way; they earned it. Barney Giesler began building cedar strip boats and canoes back in 1921 and his progeny are still doing it the old fashioned way some eighty years later. It is comforting to know that in a day of technologically-dominated businesses and lifeslyles, some people prefer to stay with simplicity, a smile, and a handshake. Barney Giesler may not have invented the construction methods but his legacy has endured. Traditions that have come and gone with such names as Lakefield, Chestnut, Peterborough, Thompson, Rushton, Carleton, and Penn Yan are maintained in a little non-descript shop in Powassan. Ontario, with a sagging roof and tired letters on the store front. And should a weary traveler wander off of the main road into Powassan, a stop at B. Giesler and Sons will surely brighten one's day. For in the recesses of the shop and buildings, amid the sawdust and cedar shavings, beyond the boats and canoes, resides an endearing tradition and spiit that began long ago but is still strong and vibrant today.