Working on one of the paddles for which he was also well-known

Just two weeks short of his 102^nd birthday, master canoe builder and paddle maker Walter Walker, of Lakefield, died early in the morning of Monday, October 19^th at the Peterborough Regional Health Centre.  “It’s a sad day for canoeing, and quite possibly the end of an era,” said Jeremy Ward, Curator of The Canadian Canoe Museum. “Walter connected us back to the heyday of wooden boat building in this area and there is no one left with his years of experience. Walter was generous to this museum and also gave freely of his time to pass on his building traditions to a number of other canoe makers in the local area,” said Ward.

“He’s the last of the master builders,” said Ron Squires.  “Walter came out to our shop in 1986 and taught me how to build the Gordon “four-flat” (or wide-board) canoe and since then my wife and I have been keeping the tradition going with the creation of a how-to manual detailing the procedures for creating this timeless craft.  And, although it is the end of an era, his building techniques will live on.”

“I have known Walter Walker as an outstanding craftsman and a very special gentleman for more than 60 years,” said Canadian Canoe Museum Founder, Kirk Wipper. Over the long journey we have shared, I have been positively influenced by Walter but especially in reference to the Canoe Museum and Camp Kandalore which he always encouraged.  I admire him and will always love him.”

Walter Walker was born in Ancaster, Ontario, on November 4^th, 1907. In 1931, his family moved to Lakefield, Ontario, where he was first introduced to building canoes at the Lakefield Canoe Company.  From 1937- 42 he built cedar-strip sail boats for George Cook at Sail-Craft in Lakefield. When that company closed as a result of the demands of war production, he found work with the Peterborough Canoe Company and spent the next 20 years there, from 1942 to 1961. In 1959, at the age of 52, he was appointed foreman, overseeing the work of 100 men in the factory.

The Peterborough Canoe Company closed in late 1961. The following year, Walter returned to another Lakefield company, RILCO Industries, to build canoes for Jack Richardson, who had been Manager of the Peterborough Canoe Company. Walter eventually became Plant Manager at RILCO, a position he held until 1967 when that company too closed its doors.  As he had done many times before, always driven by his passion to build boats, Walter then moved on to Peel Marine in Lakefield where he built and repaired canoes until he retired in 1986.

Many of the canoes Walter built at Peel Marine are treasured by their owners to this day; they are visible and distinctive at the various annual regattas in and around the Kawartha Lakes and farther afield. One such craft, built in 1977, was commissioned by the Village of Lakefield as a gift to HRH Prince Andrew, at the time a Lakefield College School student, now Patron of the Canadian Canoe Museum. The item is presently part of a “Royal Canoes” Exhibit at the Canadian Canoe Museum, on loan from its owner.

The Canadian Canoe Museum enjoyed a close relationship with Walter Walker, making him the first Builder Emeritus in the Canoe Builders’ Hall of Honour back in 1994.  Shortly thereafter, the Canoe Museum commissioned Walker, at 90 years of age, to build a wide-board canoe, using a Thomas Gordon form from the late 1800’s. Working with three local builders, Ron Squires, Fred Forster and Ted Moores, this canoe was exactingly constructed just as it would have been in the 1850s.  It was the first canoe of its kind to be built using traditional techniques for several generations, and Walter Walker was perhaps the only living craftsman who had the intimate knowledge of exactly how to build it.   A film documenting this project is part of the museum’s permanent exhibits.

The day following Walter’s 100^th birthday in 2007, an editorial in the Peterborough Examiner summed up Walker’s place in the hearts of canoeists and non-canoeists alike in the Kawartha Region: “Now that the canoe is officially one of the Seven Wonders of Canada—a title the iconic watercraft earned this past summer—Walter Walker must surely be the eighth.”