Destruction of the Oasis brings back memories

By Carmen Ensinger
Ever since the posts hit social media about the destruction of the Oasis Bar and Restaurant in Carrollton, the number one question asked by those posting was wanting to know the history of the Oasis.
Everyone knows it is a landmark in Carrollton – they just don’t know for how long. A mention was made that it has been there for at least 80 years, and while that cannot be confirmed, it can be dated back to at least 1956 when Betty Mullink and her family came from Bunker Hill to buy the bar, which was then known as the Sierra Club.
Mullink still lives next door to the Oasis and was heartsick to watch a business that she and her family ran for 46 years go up in smoke in a matter of a few hours.
“It is hard to believe that it is all gone now,” she said. “I am the only one left now and I was afraid the fire was going to spread to my property.”
You see, back in 1956, the Oasis was very much a “family” business.
“It was a joint venture between myself and my husband, Harold, my parents, Jim and Alberta Scott and my brother, Leroy and his wife, Betty,” Mullink said. “Brother and sister married brother and sister so we were a pretty close family from the very start.”
The entire brood were living in Bunker Hill at the time but in April of 1956 made the move to Carrollton. The business, which at the time was called the Sierra Club, was owned by Pick Tribble and Trudy Flemm who lived in the house next door.
“They lived in the house and there were two rooms at the back that they rented out for motel rooms,” Mullink said. “He thought he was getting too old to tend bar so they were going to build a motel and they wanted to name the motel the Sierra like it is now.”
That meant that the Mullinks really needed to come up with a different name for their bar. Mullink put her thinking cap on.
“When we bought the place it was simply a bar room and a small dining room along with a small kitchen and they called it the Sierra Club,” she said. “Since they were going to call the motel the ‘Sierra’ because sierra is a dessert and it needed an oasis and so it just stuck and we decided to name it the ‘Oasis.’”
Thus, the Oasis was born in the year 1956, beginning as just a small bar, dining room and kitchen, but soon the three families would expand. But before the restaurant would expand, the family would expand into the motel business.
“Pick and Trudy started building the motel and Pick died before it was finished,” Mullink said. “She then sold it to Bill and Naomi Banghart and they added onto it because it was just the six rooms on the side.”
Then, in 1970, the Mullink family began adding onto the Oasis.
“We decided to add onto the Oasis by building the three banquet rooms on the back and enlarging the kitchen,” Mullink said. “Business was good, we were all working. I was a waitress and a cook, my mom worked in the kitchen as a cook and kitchen manager – we all were a part of the business at one time or another.”
In the meantime, the Banghart’s sold the motel to Leroy Scott and his wife.
“They got Cletus and Shorty Beiermann and their family to move in there and run the motel for them,” Mullink said. “Shorty was a waitress and Cletus tended bar and they both also helped clean up. Shorty was a Mullink before she married so, once again, it was all a big family deal.”
By 1997, several of the owners had passed away and the writing was on the wall – it was time to pass the torch to new owners. The year was 1997.
“My dad had died, and then my mom, and then my brother,” Mullink said. “So, we figured it was time that we sell it.”
Along came two entrepreneurial young brothers by the name of Jon and Matt Goetten.
“They bought the bar from us and the motel from my brother at the time and changed the name of the bar to Goetten’s Oasis,” Mullink said. “Harold and I worked for Jon and Matt for awhile until Harold got cancer and we had to quit. I helped Jon in the kitchen and with cleaning and just showing them the ropes of the bar and restaurant business for about two years.”
Mullink was asked if she knew any history about the building before she bought it.
“Well, I had heard that a man by the name of Carter at one time had a grocery store there,” she said. “I don’t know how true that is, though. I heard at one time the Carter’s owned all the property from Macoupin Creek to the Carrollton Square.”