Wall Drug

We had read about the town of Wall, South Dakota and the well known Wall Drug Store a while back so wanted to include a visit there while touring the nearby Badlands National Park. Traveling east from our Harvest Host overnight stop in Newell, SD we began seeing humorous roadside signs advertising the Wall Drugstore and the many reasons travelers should stop there. We chuckled as we read the billboards that seemed reminiscent of the South of the Border road signs that we had often seen while traveling on I-95 between North and South Carolina. 

The story behind Wall Drug Store and the founding Hustead family is interesting. In 1931 Ted & Dorothy Hustead moved to Wall and opened the drug store. Most of the country was still reeling from the Great Depression as were the people in the small town of Wall. By 1936 the drug store business was still not going well and the Husteads were at a loss as to how to get more customers in the door to keep the business open. Dorothy came up with the idea to give away free ice water to travelers and to place road signs up and down the road advertising the same. People began stopping in for the free ice water and even purchased a few items from the soda fountain. Word got out about this neat place in Wall and the business grew exponentially. In just a short time they had to hire 8 waitresses to help handle the soda fountain business. The rest is history and today the Wall Drug Store serves apx 20,000 customers a day during the summer season! One of the food items they are known for is their homemade doughnuts so we tried one after our dinner and it was delicious.