From Tree To Canoe: Full Length Anniversary Edition - Dugout Canoe Build 

Did not know they stored them in the water, thank you for posting as always!

Divers found a 3000-year-old canoe at the bottom of a lake outside Madison, WI recently! It's really so remarkable how ancient this technology is.

Hope you collected all the chips for your hearth. You worked hard making them at least they can help cook you food , make your tea and keep you warm.

There is a dugout on display in Benton, AR. It was found underwater near the town. Once it was dug out of the mud and recovered, it was stored in a pond until conservators could stabilize it. No telling how many years it had been there.

Never thought I would be fascinated by a canoe build, but like always Townsends videos never cease to amaze.

Very cool! While a Micosukee friend down in Florida described the process, it is still awesome to see it in living color. His tribe favored cypress, which is perfect...since those things grow in the water, they tend not to waterlog or rot for a long time. He said some of them lasted multiple generations. Construction was the same; fire and axes.

I admire how they kept full authenticity despite all the back breaking labor this took, thank you Townsend crew for putting this project together and sharing it with the rest of us

Time to use what my Cherokee grandfather would have called fiberglass patch.

Man these videos sure make me miss Indiana, haven’t been for years and years, but maybe it’s time. 👍🏻

3:47 John looks so HAPPY here. I had a huge grin just seeing it myself.

I really enjoyed these videos when the first came out. I had dipped in and out of the channel and I was super impressed with the cinematography on this series and the great complimenting soundtrack. Nothing was over used or forced. Glad to see a full length version. Hope you are all well.

In the boundary waters in Minnesota you can see giant logs that were cut down with an axe in the water, and they are so well preserved you can still see the axe marks. Amazing how well water can preserve wood.

As a woodworker. To hear that journal entry about hollowing out a black walnut is wild! Amazing

Jon's tenacity to forge ahead when problems arise is commendable. Just as in the days of past, there was little excuse for not completing what needed to be done.

That was so awesome guys! I imagine it was such a surreal experience and filled you all with a great love and gratitude knowing that you guys built this canoe and actually used it. This was such a joy for me to watch!! Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Truly an amazing channel with extraordinary people with such a deep profound love of our ancestors!!!!!!! Thank you all again.

The lads didn't appear too enthusiasti lol. Smoke break. Interesting to see how slowly the log burned down. Quite a task for you and team John, good job sir.

The series you did on this was all the motivation I needed to build my own dugout. It took a full year and a lot of sweat and blood, but the Kanawha River is being traveled by dugout canoe once again. Thanks Jon.

I worked as a historical interpreter at a fur trade living history site and paddled a large birch bark canoe on several occasions. It took on water and became significantly heavier when we took it back to the canoe shed on the shoulder of four guys.

I didn't think I wanted to watch this again, but apparently I did - perfect for a relaxing Sunday.

I enjoyed the installments way back when, and really enjoyed this reprised compilation. Since the series was first uploaded some years ago, I've begun following a channel called Working Horses with Jim. He lumbers with draft horses. Probably the main reason he hauls lumber with draft horses is that he can access places that machines can't. He can go into heavily forested land, maybe at most having to cut a trail just wide enough for the horses and cart, whereas machines would need wider trails with more disruption to the forest. It's got me wondering if draft horses could have hauled that log section out of the pit? That would be interesting to see! But it'll remain an unanswered question. Fun to wonder about, anyway.

I missed most of these episodes, it's really nice to see them together in one video!

I truly love to see the deep respect you all have for the history behind this kind of experimental archaeology. A respect borne of building as our ancestors did, by the wit of your minds, the strength of your backs, and the sweat of your brows (and of course, the wisdom of those who came before you!). Truly inspired work. Congratulations to all of you gentlemen who participated and a big thanks to the kind gentleman who gave you all excellent guidance along the way. Just wonderful to see!

I'm reading "Undaunted Courage," about the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and they discuss building dugout canoes, but now I actually get to see it!

A friend of mine is a professor at the University of Wisconsin. They've been helping and consulting on the preservation of a 3000 year old dugout canoe brought up from a lake. It's one of the oldest found in the region. Pretty awesome stuff

Loving these long format ‘complete’ videos! ❤

Now I'm really glad we have bamboo in the tropics, making a raft seems so much easier! Immense work you guys put in there really awesome video!

Fantastic stuff, see y'all this weekend n Jon you should make sure you show this year, you missed something special last Saturday night with that new long house! Was like field of dreams we built it n they came!

This is awesome. Thank you for venerating American history and culture. Many people these days would have us believe our history is wicked and our culture doesn't exist.

Didn't people in the 18th C have sturdy gloves? Seeing you scrape out all those rough chips made me wince all day, John! What an amazing job starting with a huge log and finishing with water transportation. Great post, really love the heavy building posts you put up. 18th C living was no birthday party

The builds you guys do always make me think you all had to be sore. Then I see the smiles during the results and I know it was 100% worth it. Also I feel like lately this is more about history than what the history channel has.

Don't know if I would have wanted to pull one of those out like that in Florida waters, but that's so cool that they're stored like that. I never knew.

I imagine they may have used a metal ruler on a wooden handle back in the day as that means they could check the bottom when the fire was burning

The Indians and Cajuns from south Louisiana had no problem making dugouts from cypress trees. Lots of good videos on how they were made and my grandfather had one that he used for trapping the swamps behind his and his wife’s homestead. I used it to duck hunt in it and i was a little heavy for it at 170 lbs. My lab would not stay put in the bow and led to some hilarious sinking in the mud. Water was on one foot or less in the duck ponds. My boss had one at his camp in central louisiana. You had to keep water in them to keep the bottom from cracking but so there was always an inch of water in the bottom. The trees they used were ancient trees that had been fallen by storms .

The Vikings sunk their boats to preserve them as well. This is an ancient practice indeed. Fascinating!

In Robinson Crusoe, his first dugout was made too far from the water, and he could not move it.

Thanks Aaron, I know you put a lot of time into these!

Reminds you how much Townsends puts into showing the labor of 18th century life.

reading about this process and seeing it done are two different things entirely! WOW

Bought Cresswells journal on the back of this. Incredible read. Not my genre of choice but now most certainly is. Living this man's life over a hundred years on. Thank you so much for such a fascinating journey. I'd be incredibly grateful if you have more recommendations in a similar vein.

I bet ya'll had some good blisters after that was done! Awesome project. We have a dug-out in the local museum that my great great uncle made back in the 20's or 30's and it was used as a working boat on the river by my grandmother and others when they were growing up.

What an awesome tv episode! Great idea to film how to do stuff like cooking, building houses, making canoes!

Canoes don't really look that fancy, so I never thought making one was so much work. Thank you for putting in all the time and hard labour :)

I'd forgotten how amazing the video was for this build, especially the first few burns on the log and shots of the finished boat moving on the water. The folks that hollowed this out are just plain amazing - Superman's got nothing on this bunch!

Love the cooking stuff but the new/renewed content with all kinds of history is amazing!

Fantastic stuff, as always! Love how it turned out (which is absolutely GORGEOUS 🌟)

Amazing to see it all in one long go. It was a great project and I think the first set of videos which drew me into the channel.

I loved watching this series when it first aired. It only just now occurs to me: you guys should have saved all that wood-ash for making lye. Could have opened your own line of Townsends Pioneer Soap. -_^

My arms ached just watching you guys do that! I can't even imagine how you guys felt each evening, and for the rest of the week!

This was incredible. You guys are so inspiring.

Just amazing program, Mr Townsend

That was a great adventure! Thank you so much.

John living the dream. Love every episode and enjoy watching them again and again.

Keep up your guy's great efforts! Much appreciated on our end. 🙏🏻

Good afternoon from Syracuse NY everyone thank you for sharing this living history videos with me

Long time viewer. Don't comment often though. Really enjoy your channel. Happy anniversary 🎊 🎉 🥳 🍻

This was quite therapeutic to watch. A lot of hard work there, well done guys ! 👍

This deserves waaaay more views

I think these canoe episodes are excellent. Thanks for sharing this. It's awesome. Cheers!

There's been some recent finds of old canoes up here in Wisconsin. I think the last one I heard about might have been 3000 years old. Amazing.

Neat! Thanks for putting in the effort and sharing with the rest of us! Looking forward to some mini expedition series or something similar in the future. ;)

It's pretty crazy to think about the effort that would have gone into making one of these before metal tools came along. I suppose it would be done almost entirely with fire back then.

simply amazing, this is real living history!

it's truly remarkable what you've done, Townsends

with the job being as particular as it is, it is amazing the natives still had plenty of trees to spare.

I take my hat off to you and your crew. That's incredible

Watching these videos reminds me of watching This Old House at my grandparents’ house as I drifted off to sleep in the middle of the day. Just safe and happy.

Omg man…that looks SUPER laborious!!Wow. I can’t imagine doing that. Very impressive guys.

Great looking canoe guys!

This is so cool. Several fairly old dugouts have been recovered in Lake Mendota in Madison, WI. The first one they found was aged at 3,000 years old. They are linked to the Ho-Chunk people who still live in the area. A few of their effigy mounds still exist around the lakes.

I fish the same areas of Virginia/DC/MD areas in a modern Wilderness Systems Radar 115 pedal drive kayak, but it's really not all that different from these log canoes. The general shape of fishing kayaks (the ones that prioritize stability over hydrodynamics) has returned to this general silhouette

Made my day! Friends like you guys are very precious ✨💎✨

I saw the video when it first released. Thanks for sharing again.

Thank you for bringing a piece of North American history alive. 😊

You and your people make such fascinating videos,.. I swear you could make watching grass grow interesting..

We are going to remove everything that is not a boat. That statement was so straightforward that it made me chuckle.

I got to try out a native dugout canoe in Panama, it was quite stable and easy to paddle. I love this compilation. Thanks, Townsends! 🛶🥰👍

Remarkable filming, inspiring really.

Can't get the log out of the pit, you say?? mule team- "Here. Hold our small beers"

That is some hard work! Well done, Gentlemen!

It's cool to see you on RU-vid Eric, I used to hang out with you at Matt's in Cromwell, miss ya bud

Happy anniversary!

I haven't watched the canoe videos in a while so this was fun to see.

Next time on Townsends, how to hang an Axe handle, sharpen axes, pick axes and traditional blister treatments.

Beautifully done... thanks 🤗❤️

I have always liked canoes. This was a great show. I am turning 65 this year, so don't know if I'll have time to dig out a canoe or make a birch bark one (for you Alaskans) Thanks.

thank you for the awesome history for the show

Townsends remains the level best of historytube.

Amazing.. well done

Amazing! Great job guys!

little things like this that you dont even think about, is why its so cool to learn about it

In a few lakes around where i live, you can find several of these types of canoes still on the bottom. Some a few hundred years old and some lots older. They do preserve well in some clear water lakes. There are finds of 8000 year old ones in Europe. Oldest here (Sweden) so far is about 3000 years, but close to where i live they found a 4500 year old paddle in a bog. At a lake not far from where i live there are at least 3 log-boats/canoes still sitting on the bottom and the water i so clear you can still see them despite its a few meters deep. It’s an amazing feeling to float by just watching them.

Bet you there's router bits the size of Townsend that'd zip that dugout in 3-1/2 seconds. Great video. I love your content. It's always entertaining and informative. Thank you.

Townsends just keeps getting better and better

Wow, that looks like so much fun!

This is really a great wholesome show

Great work editing this one.

This was great! How many hours must it have taken to do all that? That is true labor. But why do they store them underwater? Wouldn't that make them rot? Great episode, guys!

Would absolutely love to make one for a...just in case scenario. Unfortunately, I have wetlands near me so can't risk it and the river I have direct access to from my in-laws property has gators. Absolutely love the content, thank you so much!

A hewing axe would be extremely helpful for working the sides. The cutting edge is offset to one side of the axe head and handle, allowing it to be swung along a surface and take off a chip to flatten a log. There is an old video on Norwegian cabin building that shows and explains it well somewhere on youtube.

That was one of the best videos I've watched in a very long time! how cool! alot of hard work but worth it and in the end and the sense of achievement has to be awesome too! To ride in it and feel a connection to the ways the colonials did it... must be great, I'd love to try that!