Joe Brusca has been a canoe enthusiast since the mid-70's when he first started visiting the Boundary Waters and Quetico Provincial Park, canoeing the back country. Then in 1988 Joe and two friends built their first cedar strip canoes. Actually, they built three tandem canoes taken from a Sawyer design, and they’ve been using those boats for years on trips throughout the Quetico. In 1996 another of his friends, Pat McCutcheon, wanted to build a wood strip solo canoe. Well, that started a new adventure. They took the design from Wenonah and ended up building four cedar strip Prisms in a friend's garage. That started them on their journey to learn more and build different designs.

Both Joe and Pat began attending classes at the WoodenBoat School in Booklin, Maine, and built canoes, kayaks, Adirondack guideboats and restored a wood canvas canoe. They realized they had found something they truly loved to do. During this time Joe and his wife Sue decided to move out to the country, so they purchased an old dairy farm on 70 acres of land in southwest Wisconsin, with a small creek running through it. Yes, that would be Otter Creek. Joe immediately saw promise in the old barn and with help from his son Tony, Pat and numerous other friends, turned that barn into a 30’ X 60’ wood working shop.

Today they have all the tools they need and have set things up such that they can have up to three boats going at any one time. Since then Joe and Pat have built and repaired numerous boats and have opened the shop to friends and neighbors who also have built or repaired their canoes there. A wood-fired forced-air furnace provides enough heat to the old structure that they are able to work year-round. Both Joe and Pat are retired from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and have decided to put their woodworking skills to use and expand their hobby into a small business. Hence the formation of the Otter Creek Canoe Company, LLC.