Ted Hustead’s Wall Drug in South Dakota

July 12, 2024

No one could have guessed that Ted Hustead, a pharmacist from small-town Nebraska would open the world’s largest drug store. Ted was born in Phillips, a town just east of the Platte River and north of I-90. The Hustead family relocated to Aurora, South Dakota when Ted was just nine years old. After graduating he followed in his fathers footsteps and took pre-med courses at UNL. That’s when he met Dorothy Rush. Ted dropped out after contracting smallpox which resulted in the loss of his right eye.

Photo of Main Street in Phillips, Nebraska where Ted Hustead was born and lived prior to moving to South Dakota. Courtesy of Plainsman Museum.

During a two year absence, he went to work for a pharmacist in Grand Island, near his hometown of Phillips. He eventually returned to school and graduated from the College of Pharmacy in 1929. In between he married Dorothy, the girl he met during his first stint at UNL. Dorothy had a teaching degree and taught literature at Sioux Falls High School.

Ted and Dorothy Hustead. Courtesy of findagrave memorial for Ted Hustead.

By the time he graduated, the Great Depression was underway and Ted found it difficult to land a job. Eventually he found a job as a laborer before finding work as a pharmacist and store manager. It was during this time that his appendix burst and nearly killed him. Ted worked at a number of different drug after that stores but it wasn’t until his father passed away in 1931 that he opted to buy a store of his own.

Dr. Charles Hustead left Ted who was living in Canova, SD an inheritance of $3,000. With that money and their savings in hand, Ted and Dorothy traveled the area in their Model T Ford truck scouting out opportunities. They targeted small towns with a Catholic church and a good school for their son Billy. They found exactly what they were looking for in Wall, SD. The town of 326 people was named as such due to the fact that it sat on the “wall” of the Badlands.

Aerial view of the town of Wall, SD. Courtesy of the town of Wall.

Wall Drug opened in the middle of the block on Main Street in 1909. With a bank on one side and a pool hall on the other, the pharmacist that started the business had a lot of success. It helped that his store had a magnificent soda fountain. By the time Ted arrived in town, the owner wasn’t a pharmacist so he couldn’t legally call his business a drug store. The store struggled mightily and the owner was looking for an out. Despite some pushback from their families, the Husteads bought the medicine store which was renamed Wall Drug.

The original Wall Drug Store sitting in the middle of Main Street in Wall, SD. Courtesy of Wall Drug.

Ted, Dorothy and Billy moved into the living quarters in the back of the store which was only separated by a curtain. With Ted working as the pharmacist and manager and Dorothy handling the receipts, they were joined by young Bill who was placed in a crib. The young family struggled to make ends meet but agreed to give it five years to see if they could turn it around.

Ted and Dorothy Hustead (under the pennant) with their crew at Wall Drug. Courtesy of Denver Post.

Traffic increased and the road improved after the Badlands was named a national monument in 1939. As Dorothy put Billy down for a nap, she continued to hear the nearby traffic and wondered how she could get them to stop. That’s when it occurred to her that travelers on their way to tourist attractions were likely road weary and thirsty from driving beneath the hot summer sun. She approached Ted with the idea of putting up a sign advertising free ice cold water. The first sign which read: “GET A SODA, GET A BEER, TURN NEXT CORNER, JUST AS NEAR, TO HIGHWAY 16 AND 4, FREE ICE WATER, WALL DRUG” was placed in a prominent stretch of Route 16. It proved to be an instant success with passersby stopping at the drugstore to get water. The completion of Mount Rushmore in 1941 resulted in more traffic requiring Ted to chip even more ice off the block for their visitors clamoring for the free ice water.

Seeing the success of the first sign, Ted scouted additional routes and worked with landowners to install signs more than 20 miles away. With each new sign, he offered to pay rent to the landowners who more often than not declined payment. By the time Ted had installed 1,000 signs in 1947, they extended 800 miles to the east through South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Signs to the west extended 200 miles into Wyoming with a few more to the south into Nebraska.

These signs were designed to pique the interest of travelers who by the time they reached Wall were anxious to see what all the fuss was about. Some of the signs read:

“The Badlands – Like Finding a Field of 4-Leaf Clover – Wall Drug Store 80 Miles”

“Only About Three Hours to Wall Drug”

“See 16-foot Totem Pole at Wall Drug”

“Why Sure, Stop at Wall Drug”

“Still in Business – Wall Drug”

While Ted put up most of the signs, many others were placed by friends, customers and residents of Wall Drug during their vacation. Wall Drug went international when soldiers during World War II, put up signs proclaiming the number of miles it was to the famous drug store. There was a billboard in London that caught the attention of British newspapers and resulted in Ted being interviewed by the BBC. There was even a sign placed at the cease-fire line that formed the border between North and South Korea.

The second Wall Drug Store that opened in 1942. Courtesy of Wall Drug.

These signs resulted in up to 4,000 tourists stopping at the once ignored town to visit the drug store. With the original store being too small to accommodate all of its visitors, Ted bought an unused pine log building in Wasta, SD and moved it across the street. After fixing it up in 1942, Wall Drug reopened in its new home which was twice the size. They weren’t quite sure what to do with all the extra space. The popularity of Wall Drug helped other businesses in town to prosper and resulted in a population increase to 500.

1942 photo of the interior of Wall Drug. Tody this part of the building houses the drug counter. Courtesy of Wall Drug.

By 1950 Wall Drug had more than 3,000 signs including one in every state. The young man that grew up in Wall Drug went to work alongside his father in 1951 after serving the Navy and earning a pharmacy degree of his own. Bill brought with him many ideas to expand the business which started with roofing the lot between the store and the theater next door. He would eventually buy the theater and a few other buildings on the other side in case they needed to expand in that direction. He also opened a cafeteria around a tree that they dare not cut down as it was the oldest in town.

The expanded Wall Drug Store in the 1960’s with the tree sticking up from the cafeteria. Courtesy of Wall Drug.

The Highway Beautification Act of 1965 resulted in all but 229 signs being removed. All but 50 of those signs were in South Dakota. That didn’t stop Bill who created the Western Mall and Frontier Town in the 1970’s which was laid out to look like the main street of an old town. The area contained 14 stores including the pharmacy. He didn’t stop there as he also added a traveler’s chapel patterned after one built by Trappist monks in the 1850’s in Dubuque, IA.

Loking inside the adjacent mall designed to look like the mains street of an old frontier town.

By 1980 Wall Drug expanded to cover one entire city block and employed nearly 200 people in the summer. The store by this time had a saloon with marble tables, Tiffany fixtures and a hand-carved walnut bar along with the restaurant. Grossing $4.5M per year, Wall Drug accounted for half the revenue of the entire town. It also led to establishment of at least 10 local motels, and attracted as many as 20,000 customers per day. In 1981 it was featured in Time magazine as one of the largest tourist attractions in the north.

2023 photo of the chapel inside Wall Drug. Courtesy of Seth A via Yelp.

A plaque was installed in town on November 12, 1988 which was proclaimed to be Dorothy and Ted Hustead Day. The plaque read: “To honor Dorothy and Ted Hustead, founders of Wall Drug. Their deep sense of civic responsibility, outstanding service in the development and welfare of this city and state, their compassion and kindness to the individuals of the community and their example of hard work since their arrival in 1931 will serve as an inspiration to all future generations”.

In Bill Bryson’s 1989 book The Lost Continent which is an account of one man’s rediscovery of America and his search for the perfect small town, he wrote of Wall Drug, “It’s an awful place, one of the world’s worst tourist traps, but I loved it and I won’t have a word said against it.”

2024 photo of Wall Drug Store. Courtesy of World Record Academy.

The 1990’s served as a decade of transition for Wall Drug as the first and second generation of owners passed away. During his life, Ted also served on the town council and as the mayor of Wall. His son, meanwhile, served as president of the town council, state senator and state representative. The third generation of the family took over with Rich Hustead, the son of Bill and Marjorie, as the chairman of the massive roadside attraction which includes the drug store, retail stores, restaurant, art gallery and chapel.

2021 photo of the Wall Drug restaurant. Courtesy of Mike M via Yelp.

The popularity of Wall Drug resulted in it being shown in the 2016 television series Z Nation when it was invaded by zombies from the neighboring town of Rosebud. The attention didn’t stop there as its massive 530 seat Western Art Gallery Restaurant was featured in the 2020 film Nomadland. The walls of the cafeteria-style restaurant are lined with oil paintings that were acquired by its owner over the decades. It is one of the best private collections of original western and illustration art in the country.

2024 Wall Drug photos of some of the historic photographs on display incuding Ted and Dorothy on the back wall. Courtesy of Edward L via Yelp.

As a result of the Husteads ingenious advertising campaign 85 years ago, Wall Drug remains one of South Dakota’s biggest tourist attractions and draws over 2M visitors per year where they can find souvenirs, gifts, activities, visitor information, donuts, homestyle meals and free ice water. It employs up to 250 people in the summers, many from different countries. The employees reside in one of 28 dormitories that the family built as the business expanded. In at least 14 cases, employees that met while working there went on to get married. There’s no way to overstate the impact that the Husteads had on the town of Wall, the state of South Dakota and the surrounding area.

Content written by Omaha Exploration. Feel free to leave a comment or a suggestion. Until then, keep exploring!

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Bonus Pics

Exterior photo of Wall Drug Backyard with some of its sculptures on display. Courtesy of Inside Hook.

Roast beef sandwich at Wall Drug’s Western Art Museum Restaurant.

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