Wall Drug: Wall, SD

We saw signs advertising Wall Drug and their Free Ice Water all through South Dakota.   

We really needed that "Free Ice Water" by the time we got there.  We were hot and hungry.  We ate at the Wall Cafe.  The food was pretty good and the free water was cold.  

The story behind Wall Drug intrigues me.  

(It's kitch does too, but for different reasons.)  

My condensed version of the story begins in December 1931.  Ted and Dorothy Hustead bought the only drugstore in a town called Wall on the edge of the South Dakota Badlands.  After a few years, the business hadn't taken off.  But Dorothy was an optimist.  She had a positive attitude about the future and her husband's talents and that kept him going.  One summer, she had an idea that she thought would save the business.  She asked him to put up signs on the highway advertising free ice water.  Ted felt it was a little silly, but did it anyway.  The first day the signs went up, they had lines out the door and more business than they could keep up with.   

It's the same to this day.   

In Ted's words, "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!"

The Jackalope was my favorite picture moment.