MANDAN Historical Society

Working to Preserve & Promote Mandan's Heritage since 2004

Welcome

Membership

Activities

Ag Stn Centennial

History Harvest

TR-Coe Exhibit

WWII Exhibit

Museum & Office

Area History

Book: "Mantani"

The 1880s

Mandan Rodeo / Fair

School System History

The 1890s

The 1900s

1901 Pan Am Expo

1903 TR Visit to NDak

The 1910s

1910 Spring Flood

1911 Fair & Airplane Demo

1912 TR Whistle-Stop

The 1920s

Prohibition in Mandan

Mail Order Kit Homes

The 1930s

FDR Visit August 1936

The 1940s

The 1950s

1958 Lincoln Stamp FDC

Custer Drama / Trail West

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

1st of the 21st

2010-Present

Area Landmarks

Cary Bldg - Mandan Drug

CCC Camp Chimney

Christ the King Church

Collins Av Civic Bldg

First Lutheran Church

First National Bank Bldg

First Presbyterian Church

Great Plains Academy

Great Plains Expermt Stn

Lewis & Clark Hotel

Mandan Hill

Mandan Theatre

MV Produce Warehouse

Methodist Church

NP Beanery

NP "Colonial" RR Depot

NPRR Freighthouse

NP Rail High Bridge

Roughrider Statue

St Joseph Church

WWar Memorial Bldg

Youth Correctional Center

Gone Forever

Central School

Collins Ave Courthouse

Cummins Building

Deaconess Hospital

Eielson Field

Emerson Inst/Opera House

First St Federal Building

Havana Club

Hotel Nigey

InterOcean Hotel

Liberty Memorial Bridge

Mandan Creamery & Produce

Mandan Flour Mill

Merchants Hotel

NP "Queen Anne" Depot

Original Passenger Depot

Palace Theatre

Peoples' Hotel

Rock Haven

Topic Theatre

Young's Tavern

Heritage Homes

Altnow-Smith Home

Dunlap-Harris Home

Ellis-Uden Home

Freeburg-Esser Home

Lyon-Weigel Home

McGillic Home

Olson-Brick Home

Parkins-Cooley Home

Stutsman-Wyatt Home

Swanson-Reichman Home

Welch-Ness Home

Endowment Fund

Genealogy Links

Biographies A-C

J D Allen

Franklin Anders

Richard Baron

James Bellows

George Bingenheimer

Margaret Bingenheimer

Philip Blumenthal

Elijah Boley

Frank Briggs

Leo Broderick

William Broderick

Frank Bunting

Lyman Cary

James Clark

Henry Coe

Viola Boley Coe

Daniel Collins

Elizabeth Custer

George Custer

Biographies D-L

Alice Dahners

Henry Dahners

C E V (Charles) Draper

Esther Davis

Tony Dean

Joseph Devine

Ronald Erhardt

John Forbes

Palma Fristad

Gilbert Furness

Aloysius Galowitsch

Frederic Gerard

Zalmon Gilbert

Charles Grantier

James Hanley Jr

James Hanley Sr

Mary Harris

C Edgar Haupt

Michael Lang

William Langer

Albert Lanterman

William Lanterman

Richard Longfellow

Rolland Lutz

Hiram Lyon

Biographies M-R

George Marback

Gary Miller

Lee Mohr

Margaret Naylor

John Newton

Anton Ness

John Osterhouse

George Peoples

Arthur Peterson

Nels Romer

Hoy Russell

Walton Russell

Antonie Rybnicek

Ervin Rybnicek

Hynek Rybnicek

Biographies S-Z

Margaret Schaaf

George Shafer

Benjamin Shaw

William Simpson

Anna Knox Stark

Mary Stark

Benjamin Stephenson

J O Sullivan

John Sullivan

Era Bell Thompson

Andrew E Thorberg

Ida Thorberg

C L Timmerman

George Toman

Earle Tostevin

Edwin A Tostevin Sr

Edwin D Tostevin Jr

Walter Tostevin

Felix Vinatieri

A B Welch

Levon West

Frank Wetzstein

Harry Wheeler

Philomena Yunck

View Collections

Artifacts - Miscellanous

Newspapers

Pottery and Glass

Photos - Buildings

Photos - Downtown

Photos - Floods

Photos - People

Photos - Rail and Trains

What's New

Tony Eastman Dean (1940-2008)

"I believe in history. You can't know where you're going, unless you know where you've been."


Born to AA and Marion (Smith) DeChandt on November 26, 1940 in Mandan, Tony grew up with his sister Frances and brothers Thomas and Robert.  His parents operated the Owl Club in Mandan. His middle name, Eastman, was given to him in honor of the doctor who delivered him. 

He attended St. Joseph's Grade School and Mandan High School, graduating in the class of 1958.

As a young boy, he loved to play baseball and golf.  His first job was caddying at the Mandan Municipal Golf Course.  The activities that had the greatest impact on his life were hunting and fishing and all things done outdoors.

Growing up in the heyday of radio, he was always fascinated with it.  While a youngster, he set a goal to become a radio announcer.  While attending Bismarck Junior College (now Bismarck State College), he started as a weekend announcer at North Dakota's first rock & roll station, KQDI in Bismarck.  But after only one full semester, his success as a radio announcer would propel him to a larger market, and he left the state to take a better job with a radio station in Cedar Rapids, IA in 1960

To supplement income from his radio job, he spent summer nights announcing stock car races on the dirt tracks of Iowa and Illinois.  Later moving on to become a regular announcer for the Motor Racing Network covering NASCAR races on the super speedways across the south.

Outdoors remained his first love.  Moving to Pierre, SD in 1968 to manage a radio station, he had returned to the fishing and hunding mecca of the Dakotas.  Two years later, his employer wanted him to move back to Iowa.  Instead, he resigned in order to remain in Pierre.  Fortune struck that same day when the Governor of South Dakota called to offer him the position as the first Gubernatorial Press Secretary in state history.

But while in the Governor's office, he presented an idea to the SD Game, Fish & Parks Department to develop a radio show.  That show, South Dakota Outdoors, aired daily on every station in South Dakota for the nest 25 years.  In 1990, he resigned to create a new show, "Dakota Backroads," which airs 42 times daily on 29 North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and one Wyoming station.  He was also hired by Fisherman magazine to produce a radion show that became the largest daily program in history.

He recounts that shortly after he began doing radio shows and writing a few magazine articles, his mother asked him how he made a living.  He explained he hunted, fished, and wrote and talked about it.  "And they paid you for that?" she asked.  He assured her they did
, and then she'd say, "No, c'mon, what do you really do?" It was years before she apparently accepted her oldest son was actually making a living doing something others got to do only on weekends.

He has also written two books on fishing and co-authored a third, "Walleye Wisdom" with Al Lindner and the In Fisherman magazine staff. Tony Dean Outdoors, which he started in 1985, has won more outdoor programming awards than any other TV show in
America.

He thanks his parents for much of who he has become.  From his Mom, he attributes his love of water and fishing.  From his Dad, he inherited a love for autumn and hunting.  He remembers his father emphasizing the importance of conservation.  He also offered to Tony the following advice. "Stand for something and fight for what you believe in.  If you do, you will make powerful enemies too."

Tony married Darlene Repetowski of Bismarck in 1960 with whom he had and reared four children; Cam, Melissa, Alexia and Anthony.

Tony always praised Mandan as a great place to grow up in with wonderful outdoor recreation in the area and lots of fine people.  In addition to his great success in broadcasting, Tony carried the message of conservation to nation-wide audiences and is a well-known activist in perserving wilderness areas for future generations to enjoy. 

Tony Dean died of complications after abdominal surgery on October 19, 2008 at the age of 67.

The MHSoc's museum and office is located at 3827 30th Avenue NW; PO Box 1001; Mandan, ND 58554
Contact us at info@mandanhistory.org


Last Updated 03/28
/23    ©  2007-2023  Mandan Historical Society   All rights reserved