Wall Drug Store, better known simply as Wall Drug, has become one of the most famous tourist attractions in the world. What was just a drug store in the tiny town of Wall, South Dakota, has turned into a sprawling tourist mall that occupies most of the downtown area and attracts over two million people a year.
All of this was enabled by an advertising campaign that highlighted a specific reason to stop at Wall Drug to potential visitors. Doing so enabled the small drug store to transition into a sprawling cowboy-themed shopping mall consisting of shops, restaurants and various other attractions that appeals to people from across the world.
Wall and Free Ice Water
The history of Wall Drug goes back to 1931 when Ted Hustead purchased a small drug store in Wall, South Dakota. Business was slow, which compelled his wife, Dorothy to come up with the idea to advertise an offering of free ice water to anyone that would stop by their establishment on their way to nearby attractions like Mount Rushmore, Badlands National Park, or anywhere else.
Originally, Hustead himself went out to the highway to put up hand-painted signs with this offer and admitted he felt silly doing it. However, they proved to work immediately and have since taken on a life of their own. Hundreds of them line the east-west approaches along Interstate 90 in South Dakota, with catchy slogans and offers of five-cent coffee and free ice water. At their peak in the 1960s, Wall Drug had over 3,000 highway signs but they weren’t limited to the area. These signs eventually began to be seen in sites as distant as Morocco, Amsterdam, and London, many of which proclaimed how many miles it was back to Wall Drug.
This interest and popularity saw the transition of a single drug store into a whole complex of activities. Wall Drug still offers free ice water, but it’s just one of the many things visitors can expect from their experience at Wall Drug.
An Endearing Tourist Trap
Sometimes referred to as “the granddaddy of tourist traps”, Wall Drug revels in the kitsch that so many other monuments and landmarks try to avoid. The map of Wall Drug showcases the variety of shops and activities that it now contains, with the humor and irony associated with each section evident in multiple ways. The stores are setup as a strip mall, but all of them operate under a single entity instead of being individually run stores.
These sections include an emporium of gifts, a souvenir department, a clothing store, a jewelry store, arcades, art galleries and a large tyrannosaurs that comes to life a few times every hour. Everything from authentic Sioux pottery to Western Hats to Black Hills Jewelry to homemade fudge are available for purchase at Wall Drug.
The Wall Drug Café features a full menu along with homemade donuts and 5-cent coffee that the hand-painted signs promote. The dining rooms contain the largest collection of original Western Art in the country.
Additionally, the Wall Drug Back Yard contains Wall Drug’s famous free ice-water well, although it also features the Train Station Water Show for kids, a picnic area and a fiberglass giant jackalope, which has become an icon of Wall Drug. All of this showcases how Wall Drug has become an enduring tourist trap that has created a powerful economic and cultural impact on the city and region.
Embracing the Kitsch
Wall Drug provides tourists with just about any and every option around kitchy items that they might want to purchase. Cups, mugs, t-shirts, candy and so many other items give users practically countless choices. Some of these items are available for purchase online, providing Wall Drug with another important means of revenue.
While not as synonymous with Wall Drug or the region as other icons, the Wall Drug jackalope appears on numerous items that are for sale and even has a dedicated section of products. This mythical animal of North American folklore perfectly illustrates the kitschiness that Wall Drug has embraced in numerous ways.
It’s not just visitors who have benefitted from all the activity that Wall Drug has come to offer though. Events like the “Wall Crawl” illustrate how the landmark has become an essential part of the community, but that impact can be seen in more definitive ways. Wall Drug employs nearly a third of the population of Wall, which illustrates the power landmarks have to influence and change an entire city.
While the Hustead’s efforts to promote Wall Drug were always about boosting the popularity and revenue of their establishment, their offering of free water spoke to something deeper and allowed them to form a connection with people who were traveling elsewhere. In doing so, they were able to establish a legacy that is about so much more than free water or kitschy trinkets.
The Legacy of the Middle of Nowhere, America
Many monuments exist on account of an endeavor to create something out of nothing, and Wall Drug has a similar origin. However, Wall Drug is also unique because in some ways it is still tied to that origin in a way few monuments are. Even today, prescriptions can still be filled and the pharmacy area carries a full line of remedies.
While additional offers of free bumper stickers, kitschy souvenirs and interactive dinosaurs now provide visitors with that many more reasons to stop at Wall Drug beyond the free water, the appeal of the establishment continues to be associated with a simpler time when that offer of free water was enough. Tapping into that appeal along with an inherent desire to see and visit the “the middle of nowhere” has created a legacy which Wall Drug continues to utilize for the economic and cultural benefit of the entire region.
