The Remarkable True Story Behind All Those Wall Drug Signs
It's hard to miss Wall Drug Store. Part of the reason the South Dakota pit stop off Route 16A is so legendary is because of its clever marketing: Hundreds of billboard signs sport slogans to ensure drivers know just where to stop for a free cup of ice water, or a 5 cent cup of coffee, or the best doughnuts in the state, or any number of family-friendly activities. In fact, signs marking the miles to Wall Drug have been spotted all over the world.
Located on Main Street in the tiny Midwestern town of Wall (population 882 as of 2014), the business, which just made Bill Clevlen's book of the Top 100 Things to Do In America Before You Die, employs more than 200 people during its peak season of summer and 60 year-round. Oh yeah, and they can attract up to 22,000 visitors a day from May to August-mainly tourists en route to the Badlands or the Black Hills to see Mount Rushmore or Crazy Horse. That's what brought my own family to the area when I was just a little girl growing up in Nebraska.
I still remember the old-fashioned soda fountain, the mechanical T-rex, and the giant jackalope sculpture outside, where my siblings and I posed for pictures.
My parents probably remember the affordable coffee, the Western Art Gallery Restaurant, the shopping mall, and the relief at getting us out of car and burning some of our endless energy. There's truly something for everyone at the tourist attraction.
"A big part of what we do is customer service-50 percent of our business is repeat business," current owner, Rick Hustead, tells CountryLiving.com. "We're a very interesting, unique attraction that grew up in the hard times of the Depression and is continuing today into the fourth generation. We take great pride in what we do."
The American Dream
It's true that the great attraction has humble beginnings. The original drugstore, a mere 1,500-square-foot building on the other side of Main Street, was founded in 1931 by pharmacist Ted Hustead, and his wife, Dorothy, a former teacher. In those days of the Great Depression, there were only 326 people in town, and every one of them was poor. Dorothy's father referred to Wall as "just about as Godforsaken as you can get."
Suffice to say, it wasn't the best time or place to start a business, and the Husteads were hurting. They lived in a small space in the back of the store with their baby, Bill, with nothing but a blanket separating them from the store. Eventually, they moved to a house when they had their second child, a girl. They agreed to give it five years. "We'll make it go," Ted Hustead recalled Dorothy saying in a Guideposts Magazine excerpt on the store's site. "And just think, Ted, pretty soon that monument at Mount Rushmore will be done, and then there will be an endless stream of people going by. I'm sure they'll visit us!"
Five years passed by, and so did countless cars, but still hardly any customers came. Until one hot Sunday in July 1936, when Dorothy had an idea. She had taken the kids home for a nap but returned after the noise of cars on Route 16A kept her awake. "You know what, Ted? I think I finally saw how we can get all those travelers to come to our store," she said. "What is it that those travelers really want after driving across that hot prairie? They're thirsty. They want water. Ice cold water! Now we've got plenty of ice and water. Why don't we put up signs on the highway telling people to come here for free ice water?"
So, Ted hired a high school boy, and they went to work mocking up and putting up signs by the highway with each phrase from Dorothy's slogan:
"Get a soda … Get a root beer … turn next corner … Just as near … To Highway 16 & 14 … Free Ice Water … Wall Drug."
"Before he got back to the store, the first customers had stopped," their grandson and current owner, Rick, says. "They were so busy the first summer after the advertising, they had to hire eight local young girls to work in the drug store and the old-fashioned soda fountain. Boy, then they were really on their way."
Wall Drug Goes "Global"
The Husteads kept putting up more and more signs along the highway, and now, it continues to be quite the spectacle.
But the signs didn't stay in the Midwest. While serving with the Red Cross during World War II, a family friend named Leonel Jensen posted signs all over Europe saying Wall Drug was 4,278 miles away, and a quirky tradition was born.
While on vacation in London, Ted posted a sign in the London Underground that said Wall Drug was only 5,160 miles away-and promised free information about the South Dakota store and area if they wrote. Letters poured in (we're talking 12 to 20 per day), and Ted was even interviewed by the BBC.
Servicemen continued to post signs during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Eventually, Wall Drug signs would reach lands as faraway as Paris, Kenya, Antarctica, and Afghanistan.
Today, the store still supplies free signs and free bumper stickers for customers who want to spread the word about Wall Drug.
A Family Business
Ted and Dorothy's son, Bill, grew up, went to pharmacy school, and returned to Wall to help run the store.
"He didn't know if he was going to come into the family business," says Rick, his son, "but he thought if he did he'd want to build it up into something the family would be proud of-that people, if they did stop, when they went back home, they could tell their family and friends, 'Boy, if you ever get out to Western South Dakota, don't miss Wall Drug. You're not going to believe it.'"
And that's exactly what he did, by adding options for retail, food, and activities. Today, the store is a whopping 76,000 square feet and features a prairie food parlor, a traveler's chapel, a backyard with games and photo ops, and a Western shopping mall that sells cowboy hats and boots, Native American turquoise, and Black Hills gold, among other treasures.
The on-site restaurant seats 520, serves up legendary doughnuts, hot beef sandwiches, and buffalo burgers, and houses a collection of 320 original western oil paintings (including 11 Harvey Dunns-a famous South Dakotan artist-and two by Gutzon Borglum, who would go on to sculpt Mount Rushmore). And for decades, they've served free doughnuts and coffee to veterans.
Now, Bill's son, Rick, owns the place. His wife runs the camping supply store, and their 29-year-old daughter, Sarah, joined them five years ago-that makes four generations of Husteads. "My dad Bill was a superstar as far as impacting this business," Rick says. "He was so dynamic and had tremendous energy and such vision and he was fun to be in business with."
"Probably the most satisfying is continuing what my grandparents and my father started and seeing it continue. And now having our daughter, Sarah, in here."
"I think Wall Drug is a beautiful American business, employs a lot of local people and students from all over-to see it continue gives me the greatest satisfaction," Rick continues. "And continued well, not be diminished, to be as good as we ever were, only better."
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