“I used to do the Civil Conflict reenactments, and so they didn’t have a provide wagon,” Dustin defined. He stated he acquired the wagon he restored from a vendor in Lawton, Oklahoma, in 2018. He displayed the provision wagon at reenactments for a “couple of years” earlier than altering course and finishing chuck wagon modifications.

“I bought out of (reenactments) and I needed to maintain utilizing my wagon for good causes, so I transformed it right into a chuck wagon,” Dustin stated. “That’s what I do now for my reveals.”

In line with carriagemuseum.org, Weber wagons had been the creation of a German immigrant who constructed the corporate from the bottom up previous to the Nice Chicago Hearth, securing house in considered one of few Chicago buildings to flee the catastrophe. By the 1890s, Weber was producing roughly 16,000 wagons yearly, in addition to bobsleds. In 1904, the Weber Wagon Co. was bought by Worldwide Harvester, and Weber wagons continued to be manufactured till the late 1930s.

Dustin stated restoration efforts on his 1880 Weber wagon concerned craftsmen from throughout the nation, together with native Amish. A blacksmith primarily based in South Dakota was employed to manufacture a vital piece of the wagon’s braking system.

“There’s about 5 completely different states simply on the braking system alone,” he stated. “The components and the items I bought on it, they arrive from a minimum of 20 completely different states.”

He stated his purpose was to make the wagon “as genuine as attainable.” He stated his expertise operating a New Hampshire vintage retailer previously has helped him accomplish that. He has gathered an enormous inventory of genuine historic gear, which is displayed all through his Malone residence.

Up to now this 12 months, Dustin has introduced his wagon to the Wilder Farm in Malone for an all-day occasion showcasing the restored homestead, Moira’s Heritage Day, one other celebration of native historical past, and he seems ahead to his greatest present of the 12 months, Frontier Days in Canton.

Dustin stated he’ll arrange the camp and be geared up to do stay hearth cooking shows on the Canton occasion. He plans to prepare dinner hen fried steak, grind recent cowboy espresso, and bake sourdough biscuits out of the again of the wagon as simply a part of his demonstration.

Whereas he isn’t usually paid for his appearances, he typically donates any cash raised again to the occasions internet hosting his shows, and stated he hopes the chuck wagon will function his legacy.

Dustin stated his household roots date again to the Revolutionary Conflict, and he has ancestors who fought for the Union within the Civil Conflict.

“There’s an enormous statue in Massachusetts of considered one of my great-grandmothers, named Hannah Dustin,” he stated. “She was right here within the 1600s, so we’ve been right here a protracted, very long time.”

Dustin served within the U.S. Marine Corps through the Vietnam Conflict, and stated his wagon shows have made it simpler to work together with others and really feel secure in his surroundings, each issues which have been difficult for him since his battle expertise.

“This has helped me with my PTSD greater than you possibly can think about,” Dustin stated. He, like many different veterans of international wars, struggles with post-traumatic stress dysfunction, which he stated manifests within the type of extreme nightmares and social phobias.

“I’m truly speaking to folks now,” Dustin stated. “I’m assembly folks. 5 or 10 years in the past I by no means would have carried out that.”

Canton’s Frontier Days, and Dustin’s subsequent and largest demonstration of the season, are scheduled for Sept. 10 and 11 at 385 Schoolhouse Street. For extra info on that occasion, name 315 854-4054.