South Dakota is an interesting state. No really! Because there is nothing there, South Dakotans have made everything a destination. The highway's long stretches of empty scenery are punctuation by gatherings of billboards, clustered together as though waving in frantic competition for drivers' attention. And one or two ads won't suffice. Long before you approach any destination, billboards announce almost mile-by-mile exactly how many more miles to go before reaching it. Wall Drug! Only 125 miles!...120 miles...100 miles...10...9...8...you're almost there! By the time you arrive, you feel absolutely obligated to stop, so we did.
If you've ever been anywhere near South Dakota, you've undoubtedly heard of Wall Drug. I'm pretty sure almost no one passes Wall Drug without stopping, because it's about the only thing to do in South Dakota! See what I mean about South Dakotans making everything a destination? Here's the story of Wall Drug, in the words of the original owner (abridged by me.)
WALL and WATERExcerpted by permission from Guideposts magazine. Copyright 1982 by Guideposts Associates, Inc., Carmel , New York 10512. All rights reserved. From https://www.walldrug.com/t-history.aspx
It was December 1931. Dorothy and I had just bought the only drugstore in a town called Wall on the edge of the South Dakota Badlands. We'd been open a few days, and business had been bad.
I stood shivering on the wooden sidewalk. In this little prairie town there were only 326 people, 326 poor people, mostly farmers who'd been wiped out by the Depression or drought.
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Ted Hustead and the "original" Wall Drug Store
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I could see a Tin Lizzie chugging along the two-laner. Suitcases were strapped to the running boards.Someone's going home for the holidays, I thought to myself. I wished they would stop, just for a cup of coffee, but they didn't.
By the time the summer of 1936 came around, our business hadn't grown much at all. Our five-year trial would be up in December.
One hot Sunday in July, though, a great change swept us up. It started quietly, in the deadening heat of an early afternoon, when Dorothy said to me, "You don't need me here, Ted. I'm going to put Billy and the baby down for a nap and maybe take one myself."
I minded the empty store. I swatted flies with a rolled-up newspaper. I stood in the door, and no matter where I looked, there was no shade, because the sun was so high and fierce.
An hour later Dorothy came back.
"Too hot to sleep?" I asked.
"No, it wasn't the heat that kept me awake," Dorothy said. "It was all the cars going by on Route 16A. The jalopies just about shook the house to pieces."
"That's too bad," I said.
"No, because you know what, Ted? I think I finally saw how we can get all those travelers to come to our store."
"And how's that?" I asked.
"Well, now 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? Listen, I even made up a few lines for the sign:
"Get a soda . . . Get a root beer . . . turn next corner . . . Just as near . . . To Highway 16 & 14. . . Free Ice Water. . . Wall Drug."
It wasn't Wordsworth, but I was willing to give it a try. During the next few days a high school boy and I put together some signs. We modeled them after the old Burma Shave highway signs. Each phrase of Dorothy's little poem went on a 12 by 36 inch board. We'd space the boards out so the people could read them as they drove.
The next weekend the boy and I went out to the highway and put up our signs for free ice water. I must admit that I felt somewhat silly doing it, but by the time I got back to the store, people had already begun showing up for their ice water. Dorothy was running all around to keep up. I pitched in alongside her.
"Five glasses of ice water, please," a father called out.
"May I have a glass for Grandma?" a boy asked. "She's in the car."
We ran through our supply of cracked ice. I began chiseling more off the block.
"Say, good sir," one traveler said in a Scottish brogue, "we're going all the way to Yellowstone Park. Would you mind filling this jug with your water?"
"Hey this free ice water is a great idea," said a salesman, sidling up onto a stool. "How about selling me an ice cream cone?"
For hours we poured gallons of ice water, made ice cream cones and gave highway directions. When the travelers started on their way again, refreshed and ready for new adventures, they gave us hearty thanks.
When the day was done, Dorothy and I were pooped. We sat in front of the store, watching the sun set, feeling a cool breeze come in off the prairie. In the summer twilight, Wall looked radiant. It looked like a good place to call home.
We've never been lonely for customers since then. The next summer we had to hire eight girls to help us, and now Wall Drug draws up to twenty thousand people on a good summer's day.
Free Ice Water. It brought us Husteads a long way and it taught me my greatest lesson, and that's that there's absolutely no place on God's earth that's Godforsaken. No matter where you live, you can succeed, because wherever you are, you can reach out to other people with something that they need!
I didn't get any pictures of Wall Drug, because I didn't go in. Feeling desperate for a catnap, I handed the kids $20 and told them to go get ice creams. I pulled out a pillow and promptly fell asleep.
This is the Missouri River. When we crossed the Mississippi, we didn't have the camera ready, so we never got a picture of it. But the Missouri is pretty cool too. It makes me think of Lewis & Clark. And you know how I absolutely love Lewis & Clark. The Corps of Discovery, as their famous expedition was known, began by paddling its way up the Missouri River, until they reached the headwaters and then had to walk over the mountains before reaching the Columbia River. They were hoping to find a river that went all the way to the sea, but no such luck. In fact, the sea proved a lot farther away than they had imagined it would be, and having only seen the puny hillocks of the eastern United States, they could never have imagined that over 1,000 miles of nothing but mountains stood between them and the west coast.
Several fascinating facts about the Corps of Discovery:
> In spite of incredibly difficult health and safety challenges, only one member of the expedition died, Sgt. Charles Floyd, apparently from appendicitis.
> The Lewis and Clark Expedition established relations with two dozen indigenous nations, without whose help the expedition would have risked starvation during the harsh winters and/or become hopelessly lost in the Rocky Mountains.
> When the expedition faced its second bitter winter, they voted on November 24, 1805, on whether to camp on the south side of the Columbia river, in modern Astoria, Oregon. Sacagawea and Clark's slave York were both allowed to participate in the vote, which is the first time in American history where a woman and a slave were allowed to vote.
> On the return trip, L&C split into two parties for awhile to explore separately, and managed to meet up on the same day! Not without mishap, however, as one of Clark's men mistook Lewis for an elk and shot him in the thigh.
> One of the greatest coincidences in all of history occurred when the expedition negotiated with the Sioux for horses to cross the mountains. But I won't spoil it for you - go look it up! I recommend Ken Burns' Lewis & Clark film, or the book Undaunted Courage, by Stephen Ambrose. We also enjoyed a great children's book, Of Courage Undaunted, by James Daugherty.
Driving...
Hailey's selfie.
Don't take my picture.
Another of South Dakota's self-created destinations is this 1880 town, which turned out to be a colossal pile of old junk.
Pink.
These raccoon coats were all the rage among 1920s college boys. Can you imagine snuggling up to that?!
I was afraid to walk into this building. Look at the ceiling. Absolutely no maintenance since it was built circa 1880.
And there was a second story over our heads!
Sleeping camel. Not dead. They actually bend their necks that way comfortably.
More driving. Apparently Hailey got bored and took lots of road pictures. I'll spare you most of them, but here are a few.
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