Rushton and His Times in American Canoeing

This is the story of J. Henry Rushton, a native of northern New York State who became world famous as a builder of canoes. He and his craft were at the center of notable events in canoeing history in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Rushton was born in 1843 in a small settlement on the edge of the Adirondack wilderness. In his thirties, seeking to cure himself of "consumption" in the mountain air, he built a boat for a trip into the woods. Tradition has it friends asked Rushton...