Last Portage Home

Friday, December 23, 2005
Happy paddling, Joe
by Bob Cary

Sunday, Dec. 18, 94-year-old Ely canoe paddler and canoe builder, Joseph T. Seliga, made the last long portage into the sunset.
Famed in his later years as one of the nation's great wood-and-canvas canoe craftsmen, he was subject of a definitive book, "The Art of the Canoe with Joe Seliga."
But long before that, he was known in the Ely area as a skilled, meticulous craftsman who created superb hunting and fishing craft.
His garage "factory" at 244 E. Pattison St., was a maelstrom of sawdust, wood chips, seaming canoe ribs, stretching canvas, pungent glue pots and paint buckets, and the everlasting tap-tap-tap of brass tacks being driven into cedar wood by Joe and his beloved wife Nora.
Side by side, the pair built dozens of canoes up until Nora's death. Then Joe continued on alone ever faithful to his art and craft.
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