Wenonah Canoe wrote:Living on the edge of the great upper Mississippi River, Mike learned to paddle a canoe at a very young age. By the time Mike became an Eagle Scout, he had built several wood-strip canoes and was molding his own designs from fiberglass. Not only was he good at working with his hands and good at solving problems, Mike took a lot of pride in doing this work and doing it well. So, when the warehouse he used as his canoe-making shop was slated for demolition, he made an important move: Instead of settling down to study Wildlife Management in college, he applied for a bank loan, bought land, and built a small shop on the edge of town. He wanted to build canoes. There was no looking back. Mike, his wife, and young family stuck with it through some very lean years as Mike learned the entrepreneurial skills that would make canoe building a successful enterprise instead of just a lifestyle choice. When plastics, composites, and carbon fibers came on the market, Mike made the jump. It was a big investment and a steep learning curve, but Wenonah Canoe was soon producing the fastest, lightest, most efficient canoes around.
The marketing makes claims for Wenonah as a "Composites Pioneer" (notably as "the pioneer of vacuum-bagging") Special mention is made of Dave Thill for having "led the manufacturing development for 35 years" and of Rick Thrune in relation to "composites technology" and "manufacturing processes".
Associated designers (all arguably better known for their racing canoes) include (most notably) Gene Jensen, Everett Crozier and Dave Kruger.