Land Conservancy will raffle vintage canoe

Members restore Thompson Brothers vessel

Did you ever want to own a canoe straight from the pages of a 1950s Orvis or L.L. Bean catalog?

COLEBROOK » Did you ever want to own a canoe straight from the pages of a 1950s Orvis or L.L. Bean catalog?

Your chance may be now, and the price probably couldn’t be better.

Twenty dollars buys a ticket for an opportunity to win the vintage Thompson Bros. canoe being raffled by the Colebrook Land Conservancy (CLC) as part of its 2017 annual fund raising campaign.

Tickets are on sale at various local events and at the Colebrook Store in Colebrook, the Norfolk Farmer’s Market and Berkshire Country Store in Norfolk, Ledgebrook Spirit Shop in Winsted, and Stateline Wine and Spirits in Canaan, next to Stop & Shop; or send an email requesting tickets to info@colebrooklandconservancy.org.

The drawing will be on Sept. 9 at 5 p.m. at the Colebrook Town Hall, in Meeting Room, at 562 Colebrook Road. It’s not necessary for the winner to be present.

The canoe is a fully-restored hard-to-find 1950s 2-seat cedar-hulled Indian built by the well-known Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. of Peshtigo, Wisconsin and Cortland, New York. The Indian is one of three models that brought canoe-building fame to the company’s Danish founders, starting in the late 1800s.

The idea to restore the classic canoe for the benefit of the Colebrook Land Conservancy came from CLC trustee John Fernandez, who built his own canoe from scratch earlier this year.

The painstaking restoration included new ribs and gunwales, new canvas hand stretched over the hull, bright new stem bands and multiple coats of rock-hard epoxy, carefully layered over the canvas for a glass-smooth finish. It took about 100 hours to complete. The work was done under the watchful eye of Frank Christinat of the highly-respected Norfolk Boat Works, with labor provided by CLC trustees John Fernandez, Kerry Jassen, Greg Millard, Tom Redington, Linda Raciborski, Robbie Lawton and others.

The Colebrook Land Conservancy is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of Colebrook’s natural resources. It owns 657 acres and holds voluntary conservation easements limiting development on 572 acres. Some of the preserved properties include:

Phelps Research Area: The Nature Conservancy recently transferred ownership of the Phelps Research Area to the Colebrook Land Conservancy demonstrating an important vote of confidence by a national organization in Colebrook’s Land Conservancy. This 394-acre tract in North Colebrook is a prime example of unspoiled nature in the northwestern part of Connecticut and provides an excellent refuge for a broad variety of wildlife. About 30 species of animals and more than 20 species of reptiles and amphibians have been reported on or near the preserve. The property was originally conserved by the Blum Family and Frank Egler.

Corliss 100: In 2005 the Conservancy acquired a 100-acre wilderness between Sandy Brook and Beech Hill Road that it called the “Corliss 100” because of its location on the westernmost slope of Corliss Mountain. The Conservancy will keep the land a natural area and preserve its unique ecological features. Protecting the

Corliss 100 also helps protect the adjacent Algonquin State Forest, which includes the 600-acre Kitchel Wilderness, a state-designated natural area preserve.

Hale’s Corner: The Colebrook Land Conservancy purchased 42 acres of the former Hale Farm at the junction of Colebrook and Stillman Hill roads (Routes 182 and 183), just south of Colebrook

Center. This preservation project included restoration of the historic Hale barn, which dates from 1779. The Conservancy actively manages the Farm’s hayfields, pasture land and trail.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS The restored vintage Thompson Bros. canoe being raffled by the Colebrook Land Conservancy gets a final inspection from Colebrook resident John Fernandez, who came up with the idea for the benefit raffle after building a canoe from scratch earlier this...

Colebrook Land Conservancy members restore the Indian model canoe.

Craftsmen Greg Millard, left, and Kerry Jassen, both trustees of the Colebrook Land Conservancy, work with care restoring the classic Indian model canoe to its original beauty. The canoe is being raffled by the conservancy as a fund raiser. The winning...

Neglected and beat-up when found, this rare Thompson Bros. 17-foot Indian was restored with new and refurbished parts by trustees of the Colebrook Land Conservancy to be raffled off in a fund raising benefit.