If you paid $1.49 to fill your gas tank Tuesday morning, you may not want to read any farther.

The price of a gallon of regular unleaded gas that was pushing the buck-and-a-half mark Monday and Tuesday appears to be coming down again.

"We're dropping down to $1.39," LaRayne Haakenson, the area supervisor for Stamart stations, said Tuesday afternoon. She said Stamart raised its price to $1.49 Monday afternoon.

Other stations that had increased prices apparently were following suit. Darrick Johnson, manager at the Kirkwood Tesoro, said the station had dropped its price to $1.39 after going up to $1.49 on Monday.

"I can't tell you the reason," he said. "All I know is I got a call from the boss."

Employees who answered the phone at other stations in Bismarck-Mandan said they couldn't comment, but they also confirmed they were dropping prices back to $1.39 after raising them a dime on Monday. "It's the gas war," one employee said.

Jeff Dick, the manager at the Runway Express, said he held out raising his prices until Tuesday afternoon.

"An hour after I raised my price, my father came in and told me everyone was going back down," he said. "I guess the gas war isn't over."

Dick said he expected to drop the price again by this morning.

Other stations stood fast as competitors raised prices. The Holiday Station Store was still at $1.39 at about 5 p.m. Tuesday. Earlier Tuesday, manager Randy Schuette said he was monitoring the situation, noting that "others had not gone up yet, besides us."

Simonson's Station Store in Bismarck apparently stayed at $1.39 too. A call was referred to owner Arch Simonson in Grand Forks, who did not return a call seeking comment.

Marlan "Hawk" Haakenson, owner of Hawk's Pit Stop in Bismarck, said he was holding his price at $1.37.

"Who knows where I will be in the morning," he said. "I do know I won't be above $1.37.9, and I might be lower."

He said he had just returned from an extended driving trip in the West and Bismarck's gas prices were among the lowest he had seen. Only stations in central Wyoming were below Bismarck's, he said.

"I paid $1.92 for regular in California and between $1.59 and $1.89 on the rest of the trip," he said, putting the gas war into perspective. The gas war started in the middle of November and saw prices dip to $1.29 for a while.

"A gas war is always good for the customer," LaRayne Haakenson said. "When it ends is anybody's guess. That's why they call it war."

(Reach reporter Richard Hinton at 250-8256 or outdoors@bismarcktribune.net.)