The Blood Indians were noted for their ferocity
and kept all white invasions to a minimum until early
1870's when a terrible smallpox epidemic, deliberately
spread by American whiskey traders using infected
blankets, broke their spirit. The buffalo were fast
disappearing and their ways of survival were essentially
gone forever. By 1887 the N.W.M.P. were stuggling
desperately to feed 7000 starving Bloods at Standoff
with meager funds.

The first known settlement at Spring Coulee, was a
small temporary "summer trading post" built 1/2 mile
west of the present town in 1872 by Abe Farwell,
owner of a much larger trading post in the Cypress
Hills. Farwell is infamous for his part in the May 1873
massacre of Assiniboine Indians near his Cypress Hills
Post, resulting in the N.W.M.P. under Col. Macleod
being sent this far west, finally settling at Fort Macleod
in 1884. The Spring Coulee post was built in the
bottom of Pinepound Coulee near a large spring.
The large bottomless spring was said to occasionally
spout like a small geyser. The present well at the
new town site flows 800 gallons a minute and
supplies the town without a pressure pump. This well
is 60 feet higher than the spring so it is not unlikely
that the original spring did spout. The name Spring
Coulee has stuck to the area ever since altlhough,
the actual town was forced to move up the hill to its
present site in 1900 when the Alberta Railway and
Irrigation Company laid their narrow gauge track
1/2 mile East. In 1904 the Galts amalgamated all
their railways, widened thc Spring Coulee section
and finally extended the track to Cardston.

The first white settler in the area was Walter Ross
who shipped 400 shorthorn cows from Ontario to
Medicine Hat on the C.P.R. and herded them west,
finally stopping 13 miles south and 5 miles east of
Spring Coulee. He set up his head quarters in a
wide grassy valley on the south edge of the Milk
River ridge near a small lake, now called Ross
Lake. He suffered terrible losses in the bad winter of
1906-7 and again in the 1919-20 winter. After losing
3-4000 cows he gave up much of his lease and
moved 80 miles east to Ghost River where his family
are still prominent ranchers. His grandson Geo. Jr.
once wrote that his father started out poor, died poor,
but blazed a lot of trails for the rest of us.

The Mormons led by Charles Ora Card arrived at the
present site of Cardston on Oct. 24th 1886. By 1890
much of the better land in the Spring Coulee area
had been bought from the Galts for $3.00 per acre,
1/3 down and easy terms on the balance. Card himself,
owned 50,000 acres north of Spring Coulee. It was
probably bought for speculation. Other Mormons with
large land holdings near Spring Coulee before 1890
were: McCarthy's whose holdings started 3 miles south
and extended over the ridge, including 30,000 acres.
(probably Card's early holdings). By 1902 McCarthy
opened a hotel in Raymond and Eldridge had taken
over the ranch. Walter H. Brown was reported to own
3/4 of a township west of Spring Coulee, probably
mostly for speculation. In 1892 Emmanuel Brown still
owned 1652 acres west of Spring Coulee.
He had a 1/2 way house at the old Spring Coulee,
location. It was a stage stop and post office with a
very small store. Brown log post office and store was
still going strong when Ralph Thompson arrived in
1903. Walter and his brother Manley hauled the lumber
for the first houses built in Magrath. In 1893
a telephone line was built between Cardston and
Lethbridge and ran by Brown's place. Card, in
his diaries, often repairing this line as he went
back and forth to Lethbridge. Another early
Mormon rancher was C.T. (Tot) Marsden with six
sections, who settled at a wonderful spring 3 miles
south one mile east and two miles south of
present Spring Coulee. Card's diaries record
Marsden driving Billy Mclntyre around the ridge
in his buggy for 4 or 5 days in 1891. Mclntyre
ended up building 5 miles south and 12 miles
east and 2 miles south of Coulee, his holdings
extended west to the Spring Coulee area.
Bill Kircaldy and other Mormons had holdings in
the Spring Coulee area before 1890.

Andrew Peterson arrived in the Spring Coulee district
in 1898 and later moved to a farm in Magrath. He
broke much of the sod between Spring Coulee
and Magrath.

FLASHBACK: Jan. 27,1927- On Wednesday
night fire of unknown origin completely destroyed
the barns and contents on the Marsden Brothers
ranch, about 5 miles north of Spring Coulee. The
losses included four head of horses, nine cows
four calves, 47 hogs and several tons of hay, as
well as 14 sets of harness and three saddles.

Life on the frontier was very rigorous. Hugh B.
Brown, son of Manley Brown and Mormon Church
official, tells of arriving at Spring Coulee with his
mother and six brothers and sisters in a snow
storm in October 1899. The two room log house
was only partly finished and the boys slept in
a tent all winter. Every day they would ride
west and push their cattle back from
the Blood Indian reserve where the starving
Indians were slaughtering them. Farming was
even worse, they only raised one good crop
in the first four years. The crops either froze,
were hailed out, dried out, or were plundered
by large herds of roaming cattle. In 1904
Manley Brown traded his holdings at Spring
Coulee for a house in Cardston and some land
nearby so his large family could go to school.

Some interesting entries from C.O.Card's diary
in reference the Spring Coulee area:

Wednesday, April 6th, 1892. Visited our sheep
camp at Spring Coulee had lunch and went
back to Cardston. Card had 4-6000 sheep at
the time.

Friday August 26th, 1892 - Card loaded two
scrapers and a walking plow on his wagon
and with two hired men, Ernest and Alma
Kimball proceeded to St. Mary River at
Kimball where C.O. Card plows and the men
scrape, starting the canal that will run 1/4
mile east of Spring Coulee and will irrigate
over 200,000 acres when the project is
completed.

October 7th, 1898 canal completed to Pinepound
coulee where it will flow part way to Magrath before
being used for irrigation.

November 12th, 1898 Card takes stage from Lethbridge
to Cardston, stopping for dinner at Brown's Halfway
house in Spring Coulee. They arrived in Cardston
at 6:00 p.m.. In addition to the driver there were
3 men, 3 women and 5 children on board.

November 26th,1898 - Card stays over night at Brown's
halfway house because his team had played out in
heavy snowfall.

Sunday March 26th, Card visits the Saints in
Spring Coulee at Brown's store. 26 souls present,
organized Brown's Branch with Homer Manley
Brown as president.

September 1899, Card buys lumber at Kalispell
@ $13.75 per 1000 to build houses in Magrath.
Spring Coulee Browns were to haul it.

February 22nd, 1900 Card sends two teams to Spring
Coulee to get coal he had ordered to be delivered on
the new Galt Railway. It didn't arrive and the wagons
returned empty.

October 22nd, 1901 Card gets off train at Spring Coulee
dined at Walter Brown's for 25 cents, gets on the stage
for Cardston pays the driver Mac Tourville $ 1.25 for
the trip. It will be 1904 before the railway makes it
to Cardston.

THE 20TH CENTURY ARRIVES

1900 finds a few new homesteaders and speculators.
John C. Thompson has sections 33 and 28 adjoining
the new Spring Coulee town. One mile north on section
I and 2 is J.W. Thompson. Three miles east and one
mile south is E.E.Thompson with six sections, so he
is a speculator and eventually settled in Brant.
McCarthy Ranching has 10 sections two miles south
of Spring Coulee. Other land holders near by are: Mrs.
Emma Lee, R. Pilling, John Wolfe, Joe Marsden, Leah
Moon, Felix Maninel, and a Mr. Goodenough.

In 1903 when Ralph S. Thompson arrived there were
only a few in the village. Mr. Wurtz the station agent,
Geo. Gygi the section foreman and Mrs. Joe Hall was
operating a restaurant. Other new farmers that had
arrived since 1900 were Delbert and A.O. Shoemaker,
the Hatch family, S.M. Dudley, Truman Bone and
Robert Tait. In the next few years settlers began to
stream in.

1903 to 1905 brought Wm. N. Matson, Roy and Wm.
Matson, H.A. Walter, Geo. Culp, Frank Brown,
Joseph Greenwood, Frank Crimson, Jos. Workman,
John N. Barrus, Pearl Springer. Emil Runquist, Henry
Rice, Thos. Morrow, Edward French, J.E. Sherman,
Wm. Wood, Hon J.S. Nelson, J.A., H., and Chas.
Kelley, Elmer Beswick, Herman Johnson, E.S. Lane,
F.M. Bingham, Henry Ernst, Leo Chapman, Amos
Peterson and L.H. Jelliff who was later a Member
of Parliament.. South of Spring Coulee was Clarence
Eldridge. This large ranch was sold to George
Malmberg and sons in 1918.

1905-1910 saw Smith and Over and Horace Darby
start breaking their land.

Among the settlers who came during these years
were Harry Jolliffe, Roscoe Brown, Charles Marsden,
Wm. Sevier, Harry Bishop, Bill Blance, L.P. Baptiste,
Frank Feldman and Austin Bennett (who owned land
here but lived in Magrath).

In 1905 W.L. Thompson built an 18000 bu. grain
elevator. In 1906 Alberta Pacific Elevator Company
built an elevator. Ogilvie Flour Mills built an elevator
and four warehouse, soon after. It was bought by
Alberta Wheat Pool and hit by lightning and burned.
It was rebuilt with two large annexes and is still in use.
Thompson elevator burned in 1914 and was rebuilt
and enlarged.

SPRING COULEE

(from the Lethbridge Herald -1909)

A Young Town with a Bright Future -
Immense Wheat Fields
With Heavy Yields
Better Mail Service Needed

("From the Herald's Travelling Correspondent")

This thriving little burg has hopes of yet becoming
quite a town. It has three elevators. Grain cheques
must be cashed. There is a branch of the Bank of
Montreal here. It is under the supervision of the
manager at Magrath. The Spring Coulee branch
only opened on September 20th, but business has
already been better than expected.

DAILY MAIL NEEDED

The Spring Coulee Trading Co. has a well stocked
store. They also have the post office but Spring
Coulee does not yet get daily mail. Its business
certainly warrants it and especially so when the
daily mail train passes by only a few yards from the
door. At present there is mail only on Monday,
Wednesday and Friday with two sacks from
Lethbridge, one from Stirling, one from Raymond,
one from Magrath and one from Cardston. It will
not be long before a mail clerk will be needed on
the A.R. & I. trains so mail can be posted on the
trains. A locked box has been placed on the car,
but this box is often chuck full. If these were
sorted enroute it might help the congestion
at Lethbridge.

CHURCHES

The Latter Day Saints hold their services in the
school house. But there is a Presbyterian
church with a congregation of rather a union
character for there are other denominations
besides Presbyterians. In fact, the union spirit
seems to be marked for it is much the same
people who attend both the Mormon and
Presbyterian church services.

The townsite has been surveyed this fall, and
lots will be placed on the market in a very
short time.

S.M. Dudley has been successful in securing
plenty of water for the townsite from a spring
with a steady flow that will fill a four inch pipe.

A town at the coulee is known as Spring Coulee
because of the springs in the coulee. At the
Thompson farm is a natural spring yielding a
steady flow with even temperature all the year
round.

S.M. Dudley will move to the farm recently
purchased from Shoemaker Bros. and he
expects to make this one of the best places
in Southern Alberta.

GOOD SCHOOL

Spring Coulee school is only about two years
old. The trustees are: I.A. Shoemaker, George
Culp and J.C. Thompson. There is attendance
of about 30 in Standard I to IV, with a school
library of 50 volumes. Miss Creighton is the teacher
in charge.

TELEPHONES

There is a barb wire telephone system for about
eight miles from Spring Coulee. Spring Coulee also
has a government telephone connection. But
extensions of rural lines are needed, and will no
doubt come in due time.

Spring Coulee has a blacksmith shop with
up-to-date equipment run by a gasoline engine
owned by Herman Lephold, who is one of the
best mechanics in the country.

THREE GRAIN ELEVATORS
There are three elevators at Spring Coulee.
The Alberta Pacific has a capacity of 30,000,
the Norris elevator a capacity of 30,000 and
the Thompson elevator has a capacity of 20,000.
Besides there is a loading platform, from which
some farmers ship their grain direct by the
carload. There were eleven threshers busy
at one time this fall. That gives an idea of the
grain business in the Spring Coulee district.

Fall wheat averaged 30 bushels, but some wheat
went as high as 40 to 45 bushels to the acre.
The grading ran from No. I to No. 4, but most of
it graded No. 2 and No. 3.

A large portion of the land is already broken so
there was no much breaking done this year.
However, about three steam plows, and one
gasoline plow were operating in the Spring
Coulee district this year.

The total wheat crop of the Spring Coulee district
will be about 250,000 bushels and possibly
300,000 bushels for it is hard to estimate what
grain is still in the farmers' granaries. The
Thompson estate alone has 150,000 bushels
of wheat this year, S.M. Dudley 26,000 bushels,
Smith & Co. 19,500 bushels of wheat, French
20,000 bushels of wheat. It is estimated that the
total for both wheat and oats will be close to
500,000 bushels.

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