Missoula's Clinkenbeards
Pub Date: 1/1/2003
When you visit Deano's Travel Plaza west of Missoula, you'll probably see a short, stocky man who seems to be everywhere at once.
If he's not running the till in the restaurant or rearranging items in his convenience store, Dean Clinkenbeard is probably joking with one of his employees or making sure that one of his regular customers is seated at his favorite stool in the casino with lunch on the way. You might even see Clinkenbeard feed a $5 bill into one of the machines a customer is playing "on the house."
A native of Barstow, Calif., Clinkenbeard first worked at a gas station while he was in the Air Force in Las Vegas in 1959. "When I wasn't working on the base, I was working at the gas station," he recalls. "After a few years, my boss wanted to retire so he sold me the gas station."
In his spare time, Clinkenbeard had begun traveling to Montana each fall to hunt elk. "I just fell in love with Montana," he said. "I told my wife, "If we ever leave Barstow, We're going to Montana."
That time came in 1974 when Clinkenbeard spotted a patch of ground on what was the sparsely populated rolling countryside west of Missoula that is now the Reserve Street and I-90 interchange, on which he built a small gas station which opened in 1976.
Within a few years, Clinkenbeard was rivaling the top pumping stations for gallons of gasoline and diesel pumped each month.
"I had the only self-service truck stop and convenience store on interstate 90 in the state in those days," he said. "We later incorporated a restaurant into the complex."
Thus, he could provide travelers along interstate 90 with either prepared food or groceries and sundries as well as fuel. Within a few years, he would provide weary sojourners with something else: entertainment at a 20-machine gaming parlor. In 1995, he added a Hot Stuff Pizza/Smash Hits Sub franchise.
"In 1999, we purchased a Microtel Hotel franchise and proceeded to construct an upper-end mid-range hotel consisting of 81 rooms," Clinkenbeard said. The hotel has 59 doubles and 22 suites, two meeting rooms and internet access in each room.
"Every time we got a dollar ahead, we went in debt $5," Clinkenbeard says as he displays his ever-present smile. "When I came to Missoula, I was in debt. Now I'm 20 times further in debt. The bank can't afford to get rid of me! Every time I get a few bucks ahead, I put it back in the business."
Deano's Travel Plaza is a family operation.
His wife "comes down and pitches in when we get stacked up," he said'; and his daughter, Dian, operates a second family gaming and restaurant establishment at 3701 Brooks on the other end of Reserve Street.
Despite its size and the combined variety of businesses at the travel plaza, Clinkenbeard describes the enterprise as a "mom and pop" operation. "We're a family," he said. "This is a family organization."
The "family," he said, includes the 60 employees. "Nothing stands alone," he said. "One person helps the other and all the departments feed off each other."
The casino is the center of the business, pretty much pulling up the other departments in the complex and providing the financial stability and ability to invest, build and employ more people in Missoula.
Always the entrepreneurial risk taker, Clinkenbeard built the casino just after gaming was legalized in 1989. In addition to a full complement of 20 machines, the casino has a full-service bar where you also can order and enjoy a meal from the restaurant.
He built Deano's Casino and the Chuckwagon Cafe on the other end of Reserve Street in 1996.
When he's not working in his business, Clinkenbeard raises alfalfa as a hobby. "We got rid of the cows quite awhile ago, but when I'm not here, I'm out there working," he said.
Clinkenbeard said he donates heavily to local projects. "There's very few that I turn away," he said. Among the recipients of his charity are high school newspapers and year books, Little League baseball, dart leagues, the demolition derby and Grizzly athletics at the University of Montana.
"I spend thousands of dollars a year," he said. "It's all community oriented. It's all about how good this community has been to me."
At 63 years old, Clinkenbeard is still going strong. He said he isn't ready for retirement and doesn't want to leave Missoula.
"I've spent most of my life here," he said. "I've got a lot of friends here. My wife feels the same way."
He said if he wasn't having fun, both for him and his customers, he'd retire.
"If you don't like what you're doing, you might as well quit," he said.
On the day we visited Deano's Travel Plaza, a light mist was descending over the mountains west of Missoula. And as Dean looked out the window, you could tell he was spotting for elk on the mountainside just as he had done years ago when he first came to Missoula.
"I told my wife We're going to live here and die here," he said. "I just love Montana."
Source: Special Reports published by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite, Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.