back toward Kadoka
America's most famous roadside business for half a century, and it all began with free ice water.
Ted Hustead bought this tiny South Dakota town's pharmacy in 1931, the depths of the Depression. For five years Ted and his wife Dorothy struggled to survive until Dorothy's brainstorm.
Hundreds of people drove past Wall every day on U.S. 16, the main route across South Dakota, battling the dusty dirt road and 90-degree summer heat. Why not give them an excuse to stop? Once in the store, maybe they'd buy ice cream, or aspirin. In the summer of 1936, Ted Hustead erected the first set of roadside signs:
GET ROOT BEER
TURN THE CORNER
JUST AS NEAR
TO HIGHWAY 16 AND 14
FREE ICE WATER
WALL DRUG
Before he could return to the store, the tourists were arriving. They're still coming: 20,000 per day in the summer, over a million a year.
The Husteads spent the next three decades erecting more signs. By the 1960s, Wall Drug touted its free ice water on 3,000 billboards in all 50 states. Ever since World War II, proud South Dakotans have covered foreign landscapes with signs proclaiming the mileage to Wall Drug and the Husteads themselves have advertised in Kenyan train stations, London buses, Amsterdam canals, and French bistros. Highway "beautification" has left only about 250 signs along America's roads, but Wall Drug will still send a small, free "mileage" sign to anyone who asks. (I'm a mere 1,684 miles from Wall Drug.)
But what's waiting at the end of all those billboards? Originally, not much; in 1952, South Dakota's WPA Guide described Wall Drug as "one of the most advertised attractions in the State and, for many, one of the biggest disappointments." No longer. Today's 50,000 square-foot Wall Drug can feed, clothe and entertain the entire family for hours: photo opportunities with the 6' fiberglass jackalope and Mt. Rushmore replica, an animated "Chuck Wagon Quartet" performing every 20 minutes, a gallery of Western art, a 520-seat cafe, and shops for everything from postcards to cowboy boots...not to mention a veterinary-supplies department and pharmacy for the locals. The ice water's still free, the coffee still costs a nickel. Drop in sometime!
1950s postcard of Wall Drug
Vintage postcard of street in front of Wall Drug
1960s Wall Drug. I once had a red VW like the one in the card...
Wall Drug's 80' dinosaur, overlooking I-90
Wall Auto Livery sign pointing the way...
Wall Drug
Wall Drug courtesan
Livestock medicine at Wall Drug
A recent arrival at Wall Drug: a giant T. Rex
Photo opportunities in the Wall Drug backyard
Wall Drug cowboy quartet
How could South Dakotans chase the Butcher of
Baghdad without their Wall Drug signs to remind them of
home?
Singing Sam, the Gorilla Man
Graves of Wall Drug founders Ted and Dorothy
Hustead, Wall Cemetery. When Ted Hustead died in 1999, age 96, he
received a front-page obituary in the
New York Times
Ted Hustead autograph on a Wall Drug postcard, 1991
A reader suggested I add the following tribute:
Some credit to the artist of the popular green and yellow “Wall Drug” signs, Virgil Wayne (Dobby) Hansen should be given in your photos of his work. His dedication to the craft of the hand painted highway sign gave the Wall Drug a boost through the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. He also is the artist and craftsman behind the woodwork in the Branding Iron Café, the Travelers Chapel, and much more through out the store as well as many more road signs along the byways of the Midwest. Unfortunately, Dobby was killed in 1989 and the fabulous signs he painted are fading fast. Get out and preserve as many as possible on film. And give credit for to his work where it is due.
I am collecting photos of his signs as a family legacy. He was “Grandpa Dobby” to me and I spent countless hours in the company of those signs and the artist.
Thank you, Crystal Jackson, Laguna Beach, CA
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