During the Great Depression in the mid-1930s, the small drug store in Wall, South Dakota was not doing well, but the owner realized there were on the main highway across the state people were using to visit the Black Hills and Yellowstone National Park. He just needed a way to get people to stop at the small town of less than 400 people during the summer travel season. They came up with the idea of offering free ice water (cars were not air conditioned back then) and a series of signs along the highway advertising the free ice water. The simple plan worked and helped turn the small town of Wall Drug into a major Americana tourist attraction.
Many who stop would just call it a tourist trap, and I would agree with that description. However, Wall Drug has become a legendary stop to stretch the legs on people’s family trips west for over the past 70 years. I tell people it is worth a stop to just get some silly photos with the crazy array of props Wall Drug has to offer. We also found we really liked their donuts and grabbed a dozen for the road trip.
The store now takes up a large chuck of the downtown main street. It consists of a maze of interconnected souvenir shops, an indoor main old west Main Street, and a back lot and building behind the main store with displays of all sorts of Americana, historic clippings, photos of famous visitors, and fragments of American and western frontier history. It is also in the back lot where you can still find the Wall Drug signature free ice water that started it all.
In terms of photo props, there is a large model of Mt. Rushmore, western wagons, a large saddled jackolope, a stuffed bison, a T-rex dinosaur peering over the wall of its pen, a bucking mustang and many others.
There is still an operating pharmacy and travelers general store located in the complex of shops. Also a cafeteria style restaurant. The vast array of souvenirs is staggering, from high end western leather goods and Indian art, to plastic cowboy and Indian playsets.
We checked out a couple restaurants in town, but found they were closed due to COVID, or really packed with people with no tables available. The one place we found with only a short wait had what looked like a good Mexican menu, but we found the food and mixed drinks were mediocre at best and left disappointed. But again, most tourist traps are not known for their signature gourmet food.
Both sides of the main street have numerous tourist and souvenir shops.
For anyone who has an RV and wants to stop stay the night in town, we stayed at the Sleepy Hollow Campground & RV Park, which is located a block from the downtown so you can walk. The campground not fancy, but is functional and convenient next to the downtown. It has clean showers and laundry facilities. If staying in the area to see the Badlands National Park and the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, it is a relatively short drive to both.
