MONCTON - Scientists in a New Brunswick laboratory are trying to determine whether an old hockey stick is a national treasure and an historic sports icon, or just an old hockey stick.
Experts at Mount Allison University have started analyzing what some historians believe is the world's oldest hockey stick, dating back at least 180 years.
The hand-carved stick is thought to be from a Cape Breton sugar maple which grew on a slope, giving it a perfect, natural curve. It is believed to date from the 1830s or even earlier.
Tree-age specialists at Mount Allison, working in Atlantic Canada's only dendrochronology lab, are now studying the wood to fix its true age.
The findings could prove that the piece of lumber is a coveted, historic relic of this country's favourite game.
"We could have an answer in as early as a month or we could have the answer in a year," said Colin Laroque, head of the university's dendrochronology lab, which studies tree-ring growth patterns.
"But we're going to be doubling our checks on this one. We know the significance of this."
Scientists spent the day with the stick on Sunday, logging photos and scans of the potential treasure.
They will next travel to Pottle's Lake, near Cape Breton, to find specific tree ring patterns in the area where the maple stick was believed to originate.
Preliminary tests have revealed the stick may have enough pattern rings to be identified accurately to within five years.
Laroque and Amanda Young, a Mount Allison lab researcher, along with the help of other scientists and experts, will then attempt to match the patterns to determine the stick's age.
Laroque said the Mount Allison lab will be meticulous in studying the stick which makes a timeline difficult to predict.
The stick was thrust into the national spotlight on Saturday, when Nova Scotian Mark Presley, the owner of the stick, appeared in Campbellton for Hockey Day in Canada.
Presley purchased the stick from a barbershop in North Sydney, N.S., last March when the business shut down. The stick had adorned the shop's wall for more than three decades, displayed without knowledge of its possible significance.
A collector of historic memorabilia, Presley had his eye on the stick. But he thought it dated from the late 1800s, at best.
Geneology told a different story when he purchased the stick and the shop owner gave its provenance.
The stick is said to originally belong to the Moffatt family. Hockey historians have tracked this family into the dim mist of the past and know they were shinny enthusiasts in Nova Scotia in the mid-1800s.
It also carries the initials "W.M," dug into the blade of the stick. Presley's research has found three Moffatts with the first initial "W" dating back to the 1780s.
The stick has been analyzed by a carpentry tool expert, who believes the stick was shaped in the 1800s.
Last fall, it was quietly brought to Kingston, Ont., to be analyzed by a team of experts from the Society for International Hockey Research.
"For me it's about bringing a level of respectability to this kind of research from the early parts of the game," Presley said of his hockey stick's history.
"If this is a game we hold so dear, it just makes so much sense that we learn everything we can about it. Maybe that will help us understand why we hold this game in such esteem."
Presley said he plans to write a book about the stick once its historical background is complete. He also said he hopes to use it as a tool to raise money for children to play the game of hockey.
He would eventually like to see it in a hall of fame.
The stick's future rests largely on its authentication.
"To us in the lab, it's just so important," Laroque said.
"I go home and tell my four-year-old son I looked at this really old hockey stick today, and then he goes to the garage and says 'look at mine dad.' Some day I will get to tell him, if it turns out to be the oldest stick, or even if not "¦ what it was like to be involved in something this easy to get excited about."
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