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Dean Family Mixes Sand, Gravel and Construction

When Bill Dean and his wife "Shotsie" opened a tack and feed store in Pinehurst, TX, back around 1950, they must have figured their future was tied to the prosperity of ranchers and farmers in Montgomery County, just north of Houston. But a minor diversion into another product "hitched their wagon" to a far different benefactor – the soon-to-begin phenomenal growth of the area.

Mustang Tractor & Equipment Company was barely two years old when Bill Dean got into the gravel business in 1954. Montgomery County was in beginning to grow – nothing like it would later on – but roads needed building and structures needed concrete slabs to rest on. Both needed base materials, and Dean had located a substantial source of iron ore in the area. He and his partner, "Ace" Rickett, bought a Caterpillar 977 traxcavator and some dump trucks and started the Pinehurst Gravel Company.

That initial purchase of a Cat machine began a long lasting relationship withMustang Tractor & Equipment Company and a belief in Caterpillar equipment that grew stronger over the next 22 years as more and more Cat machines were purchased to build subdivisions in Montgomery County. When the company was dissolved in 1976, Bill and his partner, ‘Bo" Rickett (Ace’s son), divided up the assets and formed their own individual companies.

In 1977, Bill Dean brought his sons Don and Ted in to help him. The new company, Deanco, Inc., began branching out, doing some road building and commercial and residential site prep of their own. At that time their Caterpillar fleet included the 977, a 922B wheel loader, a D6B and 17A tractor, and a 12E motorgrader.

Today, Deanco’s Cat fleet includes a 215, 315BL and 330L hydraulic excavators, a 416C backhoe-loader, D5C, D6D and D6R tractors, a Challenger 75C ag tractor, 922B, 936, 950E, and 960F wheel loaders, two 140G motor graders and PS200B and CP433C compactors. They’ve also got Barber Greene asphalt laydown equipment, a 2.0 cubic yard dragline (Bill’s baby), a mechanical material screen, and a fleet of dump trucks for hauling materials.

Being road builders as well, Deanco is a good customer for their own materials business. Deanco roads are typically a turnkey product, including initial clearing, underground storm drains, road base construction and asphalt paving.

Deanco uses the Cat Challenger 75C pulling a Reynolds 18-yard pan for cut and fill operations on some of their commercial prep jobs. They also use the Challenger/scraper combo to strip topsoil off their sand pit operations, as well as for digging detention ponds. " We even do a little farming with the Challenger," says Don Dean.

From the very beginning, Deanco has been a loyal Cat customer. "We wanted the best equipment we could get – machines we know are going to hold up over the long haul because we keep equipment a long time," says Ted Dean. "We believe a good dealer relationship is just as important as good equipment and Mustang gives us both."

Deanco’s Mustang salesman is Mike Manning; most of their parts and rental business is with Mustang’s Conroe store.

Fifty percent of the company’s business is related to providing building materials. They own and operate two sandpits, as well as a materials yard, with 30 different materials, ranging from limestone base to landscape rock, sand, sandy loam and various bark mulches.

Deanco secured the contract for supplying Montgomery County Precinct 2 with road base material and started bringing in limestone to the Magnolia railhead in 1991. The limestone comes from Georgetown, and they unload the railcars with the Cat 215 and 315B hydraulic excavators equipped with specially designed, heavy duty, ditch-cleaning buckets. They retrofitted a flatcar with 4-foot high decks at both ends. The backhoes climb these decks to access the railcars. Typically a backhoe moves to the furthest railcar from the flatcar to begin unloading and continues backward to the flatcar. "Recently, we unloaded and delivered the contents of 44 railcars (4400 tons) in one day," says Ted.

As well as being a Mustang customer, Deanco is also a supplier to the dealership. Due to vandalism problems at Houston railheads, larger Caterpillar machines are now being transported by rail directly to a Deanco facility where they are offloaded by Deanco and delivered to Mustang stores. Last year, some 100 machines were brought in this way.

The amazing thing is Deanco does all this with 15 employees, most of whom are trained to operate several different machines. Don and Ted get involved with running equipment, as well. And, they’re pretty good at it. In fact, Don took first place among Texas operators in a Caterpillar/ Mustang/Holt sponsored "Top Operators Contest" in 1989.

Janet Woods has been running the Deanco office for nine years, and Ted’s son Kyle and Don’s son Garrett seem to be following in their fathers’ footsteps, becoming more and more involved in the business.

Bill Dean, now 84, has turned the day-to-day operation of the company over to Don and Ted. "They do a pretty good job," he confides. But you’d be wrong if you think Bill has retired. "Dad works the dragline nearly every day," says Don. And if he’s not doing that, Bill’s usually pulling the brush hog somewhere, spiffing up the 40-acre site where he and the company call home off FM 1488 six miles east of Magnolia. The fact they don’t have any horses on the spread is a pretty good indication Bill Dean made a good decision back in 1954.

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