Schuyler Thomson aims to retire from his craft

By Doug McDevitt

 The year was 1969. The Apollo 11 crew landed on the moon, 400,000 people descended on the sleepy hamlet of Bethel, New York for Woodstock, and Schuyler Thomson embarked on a journey that would eventually lead him to Norfolk. 

 1969 was also the year Thomson graduated from the University of Connecticut, and for the next ten years he taught Latin and European history at Lewis Mills High School in Burlington, Conn. Being a teacher however, gave him the summers off, so eventually his love of the outdoors, and disdain for an office, landed him a position at a summer camp where he found himself in charge of the canoe operations. As with any enterprise, efficient use of human resources is always a priority and, since there wasn’t anyone at the camp who could repair and maintain the canoes, the job fell to Thomson. He was no novice to canoeing, though, since he had been a competitive paddler on the canoe circuit since 1972 and had won a national championship in 1980 on the Esopus River. 

In 1986, the current finally carried Thompson and his soon-to-be wife, Heather, whom he married the following year in his shop, to Bruey Road in Norfolk and soon after the Thomson Canoe Works was launched. Thompson recalled a particularly snowy January in 1987 when he struggled to get heavy woodworking machinery up the driveway and into the shop. If not for the good timing of a plow, he felt he would have been stuck there until spring.  He had experienced a Norfolk winter at its best.

Thomson says there is only a handful of canoe builders sprinkled throughout the northeast. Over the years, Thomson Canoe Works kept their business mostly local, with a customer base of primarily Connecticut and eastern New York residents, but they have delivered their custom-designed and built crafts as far away as Texas, Oregon and California. 

One of the truly wonderful contributions of Thomson’s company is his partnership with local organizations. Thomson has teamed up with Great Mountain Forest (GMF) in designing and building beautiful vessels from materials grown on GMF property. The most current canoe, a fifteen- footer, is being built by the interns at GMF under Thomson’s guidance, and is made from trees on the GMF property – tamarac, ash, cherry and red cedar. These canoes are destined to be donated and auctioned off as a fund raiser to help GMF.

 Thomson Canoe Works started out doing repairs and restoration in 1986 and then began designing their own forms and building new canoes from fourteen feet to twenty five feet in length. Typically Thomson would have two to three boats in the shop and fifteen to forty outside, plus a three- year backlog, and with major canoe manufacturers such as Old Town and the Carlton Canoe Company going out of business, Thomson became one of the few places to get a quality custom-built canoe. Demand became overwhelming. 

Thomson estimates he has built 125 canoes and restored 1,500 throughout his career. He says that all the years of repetitive motions in his craft have taken their toll on his arms, legs, back, pretty much everywhere, so he’s just not able to keep up with the business. He says he loves Norfolk and will stay, but in another year no more new canoes will be built. He loves the business and will stay active with some restoration and consultation in his retirement.

 Craftsmen such as Thomson are very rare, and the years of dedication and experience will live on in the canoes he created. To an example of Thomson’s work, stop by the Berkshire Country Store, where you can see a sample of his work – craftsmanship that will remain long after he has retired.

Photo, top, of Schuyler Thomson, by Savage Frieze.