Elbert ( Bert ) Dustin and his wife Matilda with
their son Arvel, moved from Wyoming to Southern
Alberta in 1911. They shipped all of their
worldly possessions which included horses and
wagons, on the train. They first lived in Magrath,
where the second son was born. They moved to
Spring Coulee in 1912, where they had gotten
some land. Their crop was frozen that autumn
and was of no value. Bert Dustin then filed on a
"Homestead" in the Boundary Creek District only
1/2 mile from the Montana boundary. Bert Dustin
kept some of his connections in Spring Coulee at
this time.

While homesteading in the Boundary Creek District,
the third son Roy was born in Cardston March 21,
1914.

Becoming discouraged by the deep winter snows in
the Boundary Creek area, the Dustins moved back
to Spring Coulee in 1915. They rented a section
(640 acres) of land from Clara Thompson family.
This was section 19 and the buildings were one mile
west and two miles south of the village of Spring
Coulee. The next few years they had very good crops,
and Bert, having been raised on a ranch in Wyoming,
soon got some more cattle and horses and also half
interest in a large steam threshing outfit.

Early in 1918 Bert Dustin took Lee Carter in as a
partner.

Bert Dustin died of the dreadful 'Flu' Dec. 21, 1918.
He had gone to help the closest neighbor, Bert
Ackeberg, who was sick in bed with the flu and
they were both dead within a week.

Matilda Dustin kept on with the ranching and farming
partnership with Lee Carter.

The Dustin boys got nearly all of their schooling in
Spring Coulee. I started in 1918, riding on a horse
that my dad Bert had bought for me. Later when there
were three of us, we went the three miles to school in
a two wheeled cart, pulled by a buckskin colored
Indian pony. We had a few runaways and spills with
that "Rig". We went right by the large Thompson
house in the coulee just west of the village, and, of
course, had to water the horse at the big "spring"
there.

We attended the United Church Sunday Schoo] for
many years. Our mother took us in a spring wagon
( sometimes called a democrat ) pulled by a team of
horses.

How well I remember the Sunday School sponsored
camping trip to Waterton Park in the early 1920's.
We were camped just below where the Prince of
Wales Hotel now stands.

We moved from Spring Coulee in 1926 to a ranch
that we had purchased on the Milk River Ridge near
the district of Del Bonita.

Matilda Dustin died in 1952. Roy the youngest son
died in 1944.

Arvel and his wife Winnie (Newton) Dustin retired
and lived in Warner, where he operated a small
electrical appliance shop as a hobby. Winnie
passed away in October of 1989 and Arvel died
two months later.

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