Second-generation owner of Al's Oasis dies at 90

OACOMA — Melissa Haskins remembers when she was young, entering the dining room at Al’s Oasis.

More often then not, Al Mueller was there, enjoying a meal.

“I remember always watching him eating in the restaurant,” said Haskins, 25, now the president of the Chamberlain-Oacoma Area Chamber of Commerce board of directors. “He would always greet you. In a sense, he was his own little celebrity.”

The days of receiving a greeting from Mueller are over. He died Thursday at Regency Retirement Assisted Living in Chamberlain at the age of 90.

To interstate travelers local and foreign, Al’s Oasis is known as a mecca of food, coffee and myriad other items of necessity, all contained within the 10,000-square-foot restaurant, bar and Interstate 90 tourist attraction.

Richard Benda, secretary of the South Dakota Department of Tourism and State Development, has fond memories of growing up in Kimball and embracing any excuse to make a trip to Al’s Oasis. Benda said it is common to hear from people who consider the business a destination.

“It’s almost hard to talk to someone who has driven across the Missouri River … that didn’t have memories of that place and, quite frankly, of Al Mueller himself,” Benda said. “Al’s Oasis is an institution in South Dakota.”

The business, started as a grocery store by Mueller’s parents, Alfred Sr. and Dena, now serves approximately 350,000 orders a year, including 50,000 pieces of pie, according to the company Web site.

In his essay “East Meets West at Al’s Oasis,” author John Egan wrote how the transformation of the business began one summer day when Mueller’s wife, Veda, was preparing hamburgers for her hungry husband.

After catching a whiff of the burgers cooking on a hot plate, a customer asked Mueller if the gas station served sandwiches.

Mueller’s response?

“Yes.”

Former state legislator Jim Hutmacher spent part of his teenage years working at Al’s Oasis. He remembers Mueller as a fair and wise businessman to whom customer service was of the utmost importance.

“It was important that people got treated right and they were treated fair,” Hutmacher, of Oacoma, said. “He was a great individual.”

When Haskins and her friends head to Al’s Oasis next week to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, she may take a moment and remember the man that was always ready with a greeting and a smile.

“It’s going to be weird not to see him there,” Haskins said. “Al Mueller was an amazing man.”

Tags: our towns, als oasis, al mueller, news, oacoma, chamberlain, tourism, state, local