In 1931 Dorothy and Ted Hustead went in search of a place to buy a drugstore. Ted had graduated from pharmacy school in 1929. His father had died and left him $3000. They found Wall South Dakota because there was a drugstore for sale and also because it had a Catholic Church. Business was not good and they had decided that they would give it 5 years. One day, during the summer of 1936, while trying to take a nap, Dorothy came up with the idea to put signs up on then 16A, advertising free ice water. Ted and Billy painted the signs and put them up the next weekend and the rest is history. People started stopping on their way to Yellowstone National Park.
This small town in the middle of nowhere has become quite the tourist stop. Wall Drug takes up one whole side of the road and is like a small mall with all the different shops there. You can get 5 cent coffee and $1.00 donuts.
Now I can say I’ve been to Wall Drug.
Did you get your free glass of ice water?
ReplyDeleteThat definitely is a place most of us have heard about. Did you walk away with a great souvenir?
ReplyDeleteThe last time we were there you could still bring in your Thermos and get it filled with free ice water. I wonder if they still do that?
ReplyDeleteWe read about this place in a magazine (maybe Escapees). We are doing South Dakota this year. We may have to check it out especially because Doug has a whole album of him and "statues".
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