For her part, Kelly’s wife, Mary Reed Kelly,
has long known of her husband’s penchant for collecting things. She tolerates it in good humor but does not consider herself a paddler, venturing out on the water only occasionally. Before canoes, she says, there were antique watches, sports cars and furniture. Kelly is also a master-gardener and a wine collector. “He loves the idea of having beautiful
things,” Reed Kelly says. “Ken always tries to make sure they are in the best shape they can be. He takes great pride in being able to say: ‘I took care of this.’ “His specialty is courting canoes—that’s
okay with me, once in a while,” Reed Kelly says wryly. “She is happy to go for a ride occasionally
and sit in the position that a woman would when being courted and let me paddle her around,” Kelly says chuckling, okay with the fact he often plays the role of lonely courtesan. On his own time, Kelly enjoys paddling
for recreation at the cottage and with other WCHA Michigan chapter members, who gather for weekends on different rivers or lakes each year. He has recently taken to de- veloping his freestyle paddling skills. Kelly’s collection includes, among others, a
1916 Peterborough canoe that hangs from the ceiling of his cottage. That’s where his best ca- noes are displayed amid a flood of courting- era memorabilia. It is where his 1915 H.B. Ar- nold canoe hangs over the door to the porch. There are also classic Old Town canoes, a 1930’s Carleton, a 1920’s E.M. White and a B.N. Morris, all of which were built in Maine. Morris is considered by many to be one of
the finest wood and canvas canoe builders. Kelly’s newest addition at the cottage is a re- stored 18-foot B.N. Morris that was built in 1918 for the canals of Belle Isle, the Detroit, Michigan island park on the Detroit River. The canoe’s sweeping lines and graphics con- vey the genteel nature of the era long past. Having 22 canoes does present logistical
issues, Kelly says. Storage is one, as is the ex- pense of having them restored. Sometimes he will sell one or more to make room for anoth- er he has found. “The phase I am in now is that it has to be
really special for me to add another, and I can’t do that unless I get rid of one,” he says. Kelly admits he is looking for a very special
Peterborough canoe, a 1904 Comfort-Craft model, commonly known as “The Girling Ca- noe”—just guess why. A modern-day man with vintage tastes,
Kelly views courting canoes as a vintage un- matched. And as with fine wines, if one picks well, they only get better with time. Howard Meyerson is an award-winning out-
door writer and avid paddler from Michigan. He enjoyed paddling one of Ken Kelly’s antique canoes in 2012 on a trip down Michigan’s Au Sable River. www.howardmeyerson. com.
The museum.
Second base.
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