“ I never mentioned to Tony that there was no way in hell I could ever lay in the middle of a railroad track while a train passed overhead . I was worried he would have been disappointed with me .”
I
I still get asked a lot about Tony Dean . Hard to believe we ’ ve been producing outdoor television programming for 17 years . It ’ s also hard to believe Tony ’ s been gone for 15 years . The fact that people still talk about him so frequently is a testament to how many lives Tony touched . He left an impact and an impression on many thousands . I ’ m forever grateful for Tony ’ s friendship and mentorship .
A question I ’ m asked quite often is what Tony was really like when the camera wasn ’ t running or when he wasn ’ t in the public arena . He was the same person . Highly intelligent , very perceptive … truly an authentic human being . He was quick to laugh at himself . When it came to his equipment and maintenance , his exploits were legendary . If Tony had a brand-new tire or new bearings on a boat trailer , it could only mean he dragged it down the highway in flames for 20 miles and was forced to fix it .
We were both similar in that regard .
People often ask me my favorite Tony Dean story . I have many and the memories have only grown fonder with the passage of time , but my favorite story might be from a spring day on Devils Lake perhaps almost 25 years ago . If I have told this story before , I apologize .
Tony and his righthand man , Paul Lepisto were in Devils Lake filming spring snow
Remembering Tony Dean
Wonderful memories still linger
Jason Mitchell
goose hunting with Mike Schell and John Devries . That morning when they were all out hunting , I got up early and went to Pelican Lake to fish . Predator fish were still in classic prespawn mode and were biting . I caught perhaps a dozen fish , mostly males between 16-19 inches . Midmorning , the guys called me and asked me if I wanted to come into town and meet for breakfast . I was all over the thought of filling up on a big omelet at the Cedar Inn .
We sat around eating and the conversation floated between spring geese and walleyes . Tony asked if I could get him out that afternoon for some fishing . The fastest way to Tony ’ s heart was to get him a couple of different episodes in a few days . I definitely appreciate that today . Tony and Paul had just filmed a spring snow goose episode , and so the attention turned to fishing . I had a plan .
At that time , you couldn ’ t get under the Highway 19 bridge to get into Pelican Lake from the south . There were no boat ramps on Pelican at the time , so we would launch off the ditch off Highway 281 . Something a small group of us did at that time was take ATVs down the old railroad tracks and dump small boats into the lake off the tracks .
I had one of Woodland Resort ’ s rental boats up on the tracks on a small trailer and we ’ d position the trailers in the rocks so we could crank the boats up out of the water when we weren ’ t using them .
There were few peo-
Page 14 , Dakota Country , September 2024 www . dakotacountrymagazine . com