The six hour canoe was designed by Mike O'Brien to make use of two left over sheets of plywood.

The design was published in “Building the Six Hour Canoe” as an example of a boat that could be built by novice boatbuilders. Possibly thousands of Six Hour canoes have been built worldwide.

NMHA first built the Six Hour canoe in 1999 at their first wooden boat fest. Since that time about 100 of these boats have been built with NMHA programs and the boat has become the standard design for the River Rangers program.

NMHA has made various modifications and improvements to the design.