A cool idea
In 1931, when Ted Hustead and his wife, Dorothy, wanted to start their own drugstore, they looked at several small towns in South Dakota and Nebraska before settling on Wall, South Dakota, located just a few miles north of today’s Badlands National Park.
It was in the midst of the Depression, and the couple struggled for five years. Then, one hot July day in 1936, Dorothy had the idea of offering travelers on the nearby highway free ice water to entice them to stop at the drugstore. The gimmick was an immediate hit, and as the saying goes, the rest is history.
Today, Wall Drug Store, which fills an entire block, has become world famous. Within its 50,000 square feet you can buy just about anything from cowboy boots and quality Western art to buffalo burgers in its 530-seat restaurant, listen to an animated chuck-wagon quartet or have your picture taken with a wooden cowboy.
The third generation of Husteads now operates the store, one of the top tourist attractions in South Dakota.
One of the joys of being a travel writer and editor is the people you get to meet. On my first visit to Wall in 1993, I was fortunate to meet Ted Hustead, who had observed his 91st birthday the day before. I sat in his office as a group of local Girl Scouts serenaded him with “Happy Birthday To You.”
“We get a lot of buses. Even this morning, before we opened, two busloads of people were waiting to get in,” he told me. “We have had a lot of good things happen to us. It’s a crazy success story, but it’s quite exciting.”
