February 6, 2025 • 17 mins
What started as a modest drug store now welcomes millions of curious travelers …
Welcome to Wall Drug!
Home to a Robot T-rex, 6,000 cowboy boots, animatronic singers, a working chapel - and of course, their famous 5 cent coffee …
Join my dog Noodles and I as we explore the wild story of Americas largest and most bizarre drug store!
Works Cited:
https://www.nps.gov/people/tedhustead.htm
https://www.maturesolotraveler.com/post/wall-drug-in-south-dakota-has-something-for-everyone
https://roadtrippers.com/magazine/wall-drug-south-dakota-western-art/
https://www.roadtripusa.com/the-road-to-nowhere/south-dakota/wall-drug/
https://www.walldrug.com/about-us
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5yDfkrphPU
Noah and Noodles here!
We want to extend a heartfelt thanks to every listener of Backroad Odyssey.
Your support fuels our passion and inspires us to keep sharing stories and discover overlooked locations.
Follow each adventure visually at:
https://www.instagram.com/backroadsodyssey/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Cruisin' down the street.
I wonder where this road wouldlead.
So many possibilities.
Care to share what you think.
Oh, noodle Dolls, what do yousee?
Back Road Odyssey.
(00:25):
What started as a modestdrugstore now welcomes millions
of curious travelers.
Welcome to Wall Drug.
Home to a robot, t-rex, 6,000cowboy boots, animatronic
singers, a working chapel and,of course, the famous five-cent
coffee.
We could go on.
But the question now is thisJust what is the secret behind
(00:49):
Wall Drug's success?
Join my dog Noodles and I as weexplore the ins and outs of
America's largest and mostbizarre drugstore.
We're in Wyoming, driving west.
If you know anything aboutWaldrug, you'll know about all
(01:12):
of their signs.
There's an absolutely ludicrousamount of promotions spanning
every conceivable direction.
So, like I said, we're still inWyoming and we've already
passed Waldrug signs promotingdonuts stores, you name it, but
with a very relevant caveatwe're still something like 240
(01:35):
miles away from Waldrug.
I'll say this I've been toWaldrug once before, years ago,
but at the time my reactionwasn't instant fascination.
It was more genuine confusionwith what this place is.
I parked, I walked around andsimply asked myself what is this
(01:56):
fever dream of a place?
That was my experience, but now, with context and a bit more
desire to understand the fullstory of Wall Drug.
I expect a different experience, who's to say?
But in my almost three hoursleft of driving before I
actually get to Wall Drug, Iwant to ask myself the following
(02:20):
question how does somethinglike this come to exist where it
exists now, in the middle ofnowhere?
That town is in the middle ofnowhere and, furthermore,
everyone there is flat brokebusted.
A skeptical cousin of TedHouston, co-founder of wall drug
.
The year is 1931.
(02:44):
Dorothy and Ted Houston buy theonly drugstore in Wall, south
Dakota.
The prospects of the store are,to put it mildly, poor.
Residing at the edge of thewind-plagued Badlands, the
lonesome town has a populationof only 326.
(03:04):
Most are farmers, droughts arecommon.
It is also the height of theDepression.
No wonder that Dorothy andTed's thoughts race as they
close their makeshift curtainswhich divide their meager living
space from the rest of thestore.
How can we make it?
Can we even make it?
(03:27):
Time will tell.
They must have thought Fiveyears, dorothy.
That's what I think.
We should give this store Fivegood years.
And if it doesn't work, by then, da-da-da, ted Houston, ted and
(03:55):
Dorothy's allotted five yearspass and business remains poor,
but what is assuredly a slowdeath sentence for the store
Holtz with one idea on ascorchingly hot South Dakota
summer day, well, sweating andswatting flies in the desolate
(04:15):
store.
Dorothy looks out at the passingcars traversing by the nearby
byways US 14 and US 16.
Whilst watching, she thinks toherself a thought that will
change everything.
I bet they are thirsty.
(04:35):
Get a soda, get a root beer.
Turn the corner just as near toHighway 16 and 14.
Free ice water Waldrug the firstWaldrug sign, designed and
written by Dorothy Houston.
It's 1936.
(04:56):
Unbearably hot.
Passing cars don't have AC,everyone's miles and miles from
anything else.
And, contrary to what's rathertrivial and common today, water,
good ice water, and these partsat this time might as well be
gold.
Dorothy realizes this, and soshe leans into the store's large
(05:23):
supply of ice and water thatvery day, designing a sign
advertising free ice water topassing cars if they came to
visit the store.
Her first move is changing thename of the drug store from
Houston Drug to something thatwould more simply fit easily
(05:44):
onto signs.
And bam, waldrug is born.
After placing her sign for freewater, fortunes quickly and
miraculously turn around.
The newly named Waldrug becomesa haven for weary travelers who
stop desperately needing coldwater and end up purchasing ice
(06:05):
cream and other supplies.
Well, there, get this.
20,000 people flock to Waldronthe very next summer because of
these signs, because of thisfree, seemingly unimportant ice
water.
With the completion of thenearby Mount Rushmore in 1941, a
(06:27):
further influx of visitorsbecomes constant.
And from then on, for Waldrug,the sky, it seems, is the limit.
Hey now, hey now, hey now.
(06:48):
This is what dreams are made ofLizzie McGuire.
We are camped right outside theparking lot of Waldrug and you
know, driving in here, this isone of these places.
That is the town.
It takes up the entirety ofMain Street.
It's a little bit of a longroad, man like.
What a thing to start so smalland years later, grow into
(07:13):
something so massive and sovisited and, importantly, to
pivot from a simple drug storeto whatever wall drug is today,
whatever you'd classify it as,is absolutely fascinating and
that's what I'd like to explore.
Absolutely fascinating, andthat's what I'd like to explore.
That moment, or those couplemoments, from filling
(07:34):
prescriptions to feeding roboticT-Rexes every day.
That, to me, is what's sofascinating about this place.
If you'll indulge me, I'm goingto go turn the AC on for noodles
.
Walk around a bit.
Got to clear my head after youknow passing all those signs.
Give me a second, I'm going toclear my head and go into up my
(08:01):
eyes.
I saw the sign Ace of Base 1993.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it, as the saying goes.
(08:22):
One sign turns into 20, 30,eventually 3,000 signs From
Paris to Amsterdam, alladvertising a little drugstore
at the edge of the South DakotaBadlands.
Today they've toned down theirspending a bit.
Paris, it seems to have cost apretty penny and didn't bring in
(08:46):
many Parisians.
But there's still somethinglike 300 signs in South Dakota
alone and more in Wyoming andMinnesota.
Wall drugs' fingerprints are andhave been everywhere, so we
thought it'd be appropriate.
Let's take a quick drive pastsome of the signs.
Shall we Wall drug or bust Freeice water Wall Drug.
(09:12):
Black Hills Gold Wall Drug.
Homemade Ice Cream Wall Drug.
Homemade Donuts Wall Drug.
Old Fashioned Soda FountainWall Drug, cowboy Up Boots,
buckles and Belts and a wholelot more Wall drug Only five
(09:35):
cents Hot coffee Wall drug.
Thank you, come again.
Wall drug.
The point is this there was andis a plethora of signs, but
ironically it's these signs thevery thing that saved Waldrug
(09:56):
from certain failure, the verything that it was and is known
for that embarrass at first atleast the heir to the Waldrug
legacy after Ted and Dorothy.
And it's these crazy amount ofsigns that in themselves, in a
roundabout way, lead to the wildexpansion of a simple drug
(10:19):
store.
Let's backtrack just a bit.
Well, at college, some 400miles away, Bill Houston, son of
Ted and Dorothy and heir to thewall drug throne, as is often
the case, is asked where are youfrom?
Whilst meeting new people.
But soon a problem arose withBill.
(10:39):
Anytime he said he was fromWall, south Dakota, the response
would always be oh, that's thetown, with the ludicrous amount
of signs that are pointingtoward this tiny drugstore.
That's not really of note onceyou get there.
And so eventually, in response,bill avoids saying where he's
(11:01):
from altogether.
He felt a disconnect betweenthe number of signs and the
location that each of thesesigns was trying to lead you to.
You'd see 100 signs pointingtoward this place and you'd get
there, and it's just a drugstore.
It's at this time where Billsays to himself if I ever return
(11:26):
to the store now the familybusiness I'm going to create
something worth stopping for,something that lives up to what
all of these signs are promisingA destination.
So that's exactly what Billdoes years at Waldrug.
(11:48):
Bill takes the 1,000 squarefoot store and turns it into a
staggering 78,000 foot complexHousing.
You name it homemade donuts,rock stores, western ware
curators.
You get the point.
Waldrug becomes Waldrug underBill and in a large part because
(12:14):
of the science that we'readvertising such a small
business.
Looking back, it's funny how onehot summer day and a free glass
of water grows into, quiteliterally, something out of a
(12:34):
dream.
My friends, there's no otherway to say this I'm in the belly
of the beast Waldrug.
Look, they're known for theirhomemade donuts.
Legend has it that Bill, theson of the founders of Waldrug,
worked for free at a donut shopto figure out their secrets.
(12:55):
And it's good, solid donuts.
I already visited the TedHusted robotic orchestra band.
I'm not sure exactly what tocall it, but it features dancing
skunks and a bunch of peopleplaying instruments.
Uh, the weasel or something popsout at some point.
I don't know.
(13:15):
Uh, where to start, I guess,with this.
I don't know.
My question now is walkingaround this giant complex.
I'm not curious about thelogistics of how it happened.
That doesn't interest me asmuch.
My, my question now walkingaround here is this why am I
telling this story?
(13:37):
You know what makes the strangestory of Waldrug worth telling.
Why should you listen?
89 years later, the littlepharmacy on the edge of the
South Dakota Badlands stilloffers free water and sees over
200 million visitors each year.
(13:59):
So why tell this story?
What's the point?
For myself, the story ofWaldrug is a tale of hope.
Everyone goes through periodsof strife, of doubt, of sadness,
(14:24):
but it's the recognition of alimitless future that makes life
worth living sometimes,whatever your past, whatever
your present.
Yes, it's kind of cliche, butit's what you make it, and
Dorothy Husted recognized thisin her vacant store on that hot
South Dakota summer day so manyyears ago.
(14:44):
It's Noah here.
Thank you for listening toBackroad Odyssey.
So this story fits perfectlywith what we'd like to say with
each episode of our podcast here, and that's that any place, no
(15:08):
matter how desolate or otherwiseignored, can become a
destination and something worthadmiring and looking into.
So, with that said, some advice.
If you're looking into going toWalt Drug, I'll say this Don't
fly out just to go to Walt Drug.
You shouldn't do that.
But that's also not what it'sabout.
(15:30):
It is, and it always has been adestination among destinations,
and the Crazy Horse Monument isonly an hour away, the Badlands
are right out its back door andDevil's Tower, which is a great
, great place to go to for hikesand whatnot, is two hours away.
(15:50):
But I'll also say this mostdefinitely if you're in the area
, and even if you're two, threehours away, make a stop at
Waldrow.
You know the story and thehistory alone is reason enough
to visit.
They still have five centcoffee.
You get what you pay for interms of the coffee, but it's
(16:12):
coffee.
You know, it's definitelycoffee.
It's not great.
Their maple donuts are prettypopular and very, very good and
it's just an interesting, uniqueplace to be, and that's what
life is about.
You know, it's, as the titleimplies of this episode, the
weirdest drugstore you ever didsee and, with that said, if you
(16:35):
have any questions about it,reach out to me at
backroadodysseypod at gmailcom.
Otherwise, if you find value inthe amount of effort that we
put into each episode here, ithelps us considerably.
If you rate and review the showwherever you're listening now
Genuinely helps and genuinelyappreciate the effort that you
(16:58):
take into doing that, appreciateyou and, with that said, be
good to each other.
We're two next.
Cruisin' down the street.
I wonder where this road wouldlead.
So many possibilities.
Care to share what you think.
Oh, noodle Dolls, what do yousee?
Back Road Odyssey.
(00:25):
What started as a modestdrugstore now welcomes millions
of curious travelers.
Welcome to Wall Drug.
Home to a robot, t-rex, 6,000cowboy boots, animatronic
singers, a working chapel and,of course, the famous five-cent
coffee.
We could go on.
But the question now is thisJust what is the secret behind
(00:49):
Wall Drug's success?
Join my dog Noodles and I as weexplore the ins and outs of
America's largest and mostbizarre drugstore.
We're in Wyoming, driving west.
If you know anything aboutWaldrug, you'll know about all
(01:12):
of their signs.
There's an absolutely ludicrousamount of promotions spanning
every conceivable direction.
So, like I said, we're still inWyoming and we've already
passed Waldrug signs promotingdonuts stores, you name it, but
with a very relevant caveatwe're still something like 240
(01:35):
miles away from Waldrug.
I'll say this I've been toWaldrug once before, years ago,
but at the time my reactionwasn't instant fascination.
It was more genuine confusionwith what this place is.
I parked, I walked around andsimply asked myself what is this
(01:56):
fever dream of a place?
That was my experience, but now, with context and a bit more
desire to understand the fullstory of Wall Drug.
I expect a different experience, who's to say?
But in my almost three hoursleft of driving before I
actually get to Wall Drug, Iwant to ask myself the following
(02:20):
question how does somethinglike this come to exist where it
exists now, in the middle ofnowhere?
That town is in the middle ofnowhere and, furthermore,
everyone there is flat brokebusted.
A skeptical cousin of TedHouston, co-founder of wall drug
.
The year is 1931.
(02:44):
Dorothy and Ted Houston buy theonly drugstore in Wall, south
Dakota.
The prospects of the store are,to put it mildly, poor.
Residing at the edge of thewind-plagued Badlands, the
lonesome town has a populationof only 326.
(03:04):
Most are farmers, droughts arecommon.
It is also the height of theDepression.
No wonder that Dorothy andTed's thoughts race as they
close their makeshift curtainswhich divide their meager living
space from the rest of thestore.
How can we make it?
Can we even make it?
(03:27):
Time will tell.
They must have thought Fiveyears, dorothy.
That's what I think.
We should give this store Fivegood years.
And if it doesn't work, by then, da-da-da, ted Houston, ted and
(03:55):
Dorothy's allotted five yearspass and business remains poor,
but what is assuredly a slowdeath sentence for the store
Holtz with one idea on ascorchingly hot South Dakota
summer day, well, sweating andswatting flies in the desolate
(04:15):
store.
Dorothy looks out at the passingcars traversing by the nearby
byways US 14 and US 16.
Whilst watching, she thinks toherself a thought that will
change everything.
I bet they are thirsty.
(04:35):
Get a soda, get a root beer.
Turn the corner just as near toHighway 16 and 14.
Free ice water Waldrug the firstWaldrug sign, designed and
written by Dorothy Houston.
It's 1936.
(04:56):
Unbearably hot.
Passing cars don't have AC,everyone's miles and miles from
anything else.
And, contrary to what's rathertrivial and common today, water,
good ice water, and these partsat this time might as well be
gold.
Dorothy realizes this, and soshe leans into the store's large
(05:23):
supply of ice and water thatvery day, designing a sign
advertising free ice water topassing cars if they came to
visit the store.
Her first move is changing thename of the drug store from
Houston Drug to something thatwould more simply fit easily
(05:44):
onto signs.
And bam, waldrug is born.
After placing her sign for freewater, fortunes quickly and
miraculously turn around.
The newly named Waldrug becomesa haven for weary travelers who
stop desperately needing coldwater and end up purchasing ice
(06:05):
cream and other supplies.
Well, there, get this.
20,000 people flock to Waldronthe very next summer because of
these signs, because of thisfree, seemingly unimportant ice
water.
With the completion of thenearby Mount Rushmore in 1941, a
(06:27):
further influx of visitorsbecomes constant.
And from then on, for Waldrug,the sky, it seems, is the limit.
Hey now, hey now, hey now.
(06:48):
This is what dreams are made ofLizzie McGuire.
We are camped right outside theparking lot of Waldrug and you
know, driving in here, this isone of these places.
That is the town.
It takes up the entirety ofMain Street.
It's a little bit of a longroad, man like.
What a thing to start so smalland years later, grow into
(07:13):
something so massive and sovisited and, importantly, to
pivot from a simple drug storeto whatever wall drug is today,
whatever you'd classify it as,is absolutely fascinating and
that's what I'd like to explore.
Absolutely fascinating, andthat's what I'd like to explore.
That moment, or those couplemoments, from filling
(07:34):
prescriptions to feeding roboticT-Rexes every day.
That, to me, is what's sofascinating about this place.
If you'll indulge me, I'm goingto go turn the AC on for noodles
.
Walk around a bit.
Got to clear my head after youknow passing all those signs.
Give me a second, I'm going toclear my head and go into up my
(08:01):
eyes.
I saw the sign Ace of Base 1993.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it, as the saying goes.
(08:22):
One sign turns into 20, 30,eventually 3,000 signs From
Paris to Amsterdam, alladvertising a little drugstore
at the edge of the South DakotaBadlands.
Today they've toned down theirspending a bit.
Paris, it seems to have cost apretty penny and didn't bring in
(08:46):
many Parisians.
But there's still somethinglike 300 signs in South Dakota
alone and more in Wyoming andMinnesota.
Wall drugs' fingerprints are andhave been everywhere, so we
thought it'd be appropriate.
Let's take a quick drive pastsome of the signs.
Shall we Wall drug or bust Freeice water Wall Drug.
(09:12):
Black Hills Gold Wall Drug.
Homemade Ice Cream Wall Drug.
Homemade Donuts Wall Drug.
Old Fashioned Soda FountainWall Drug, cowboy Up Boots,
buckles and Belts and a wholelot more Wall drug Only five
(09:35):
cents Hot coffee Wall drug.
Thank you, come again.
Wall drug.
The point is this there was andis a plethora of signs, but
ironically it's these signs thevery thing that saved Waldrug
(09:56):
from certain failure, the verything that it was and is known
for that embarrass at first atleast the heir to the Waldrug
legacy after Ted and Dorothy.
And it's these crazy amount ofsigns that in themselves, in a
roundabout way, lead to the wildexpansion of a simple drug
(10:19):
store.
Let's backtrack just a bit.
Well, at college, some 400miles away, Bill Houston, son of
Ted and Dorothy and heir to thewall drug throne, as is often
the case, is asked where are youfrom?
Whilst meeting new people.
But soon a problem arose withBill.
(10:39):
Anytime he said he was fromWall, south Dakota, the response
would always be oh, that's thetown, with the ludicrous amount
of signs that are pointingtoward this tiny drugstore.
That's not really of note onceyou get there.
And so eventually, in response,bill avoids saying where he's
(11:01):
from altogether.
He felt a disconnect betweenthe number of signs and the
location that each of thesesigns was trying to lead you to.
You'd see 100 signs pointingtoward this place and you'd get
there, and it's just a drugstore.
It's at this time where Billsays to himself if I ever return
(11:26):
to the store now the familybusiness I'm going to create
something worth stopping for,something that lives up to what
all of these signs are promisingA destination.
So that's exactly what Billdoes years at Waldrug.
(11:48):
Bill takes the 1,000 squarefoot store and turns it into a
staggering 78,000 foot complexHousing.
You name it homemade donuts,rock stores, western ware
curators.
You get the point.
Waldrug becomes Waldrug underBill and in a large part because
(12:14):
of the science that we'readvertising such a small
business.
Looking back, it's funny how onehot summer day and a free glass
of water grows into, quiteliterally, something out of a
(12:34):
dream.
My friends, there's no otherway to say this I'm in the belly
of the beast Waldrug.
Look, they're known for theirhomemade donuts.
Legend has it that Bill, theson of the founders of Waldrug,
worked for free at a donut shopto figure out their secrets.
(12:55):
And it's good, solid donuts.
I already visited the TedHusted robotic orchestra band.
I'm not sure exactly what tocall it, but it features dancing
skunks and a bunch of peopleplaying instruments.
Uh, the weasel or something popsout at some point.
I don't know.
(13:15):
Uh, where to start, I guess,with this.
I don't know.
My question now is walkingaround this giant complex.
I'm not curious about thelogistics of how it happened.
That doesn't interest me asmuch.
My, my question now walkingaround here is this why am I
telling this story?
(13:37):
You know what makes the strangestory of Waldrug worth telling.
Why should you listen?
89 years later, the littlepharmacy on the edge of the
South Dakota Badlands stilloffers free water and sees over
200 million visitors each year.
(13:59):
So why tell this story?
What's the point?
For myself, the story ofWaldrug is a tale of hope.
Everyone goes through periodsof strife, of doubt, of sadness,
(14:24):
but it's the recognition of alimitless future that makes life
worth living sometimes,whatever your past, whatever
your present.
Yes, it's kind of cliche, butit's what you make it, and
Dorothy Husted recognized thisin her vacant store on that hot
South Dakota summer day so manyyears ago.
(14:44):
It's Noah here.
Thank you for listening toBackroad Odyssey.
So this story fits perfectlywith what we'd like to say with
each episode of our podcast here, and that's that any place, no
(15:08):
matter how desolate or otherwiseignored, can become a
destination and something worthadmiring and looking into.
So, with that said, some advice.
If you're looking into going toWalt Drug, I'll say this Don't
fly out just to go to Walt Drug.
You shouldn't do that.
But that's also not what it'sabout.
(15:30):
It is, and it always has been adestination among destinations,
and the Crazy Horse Monument isonly an hour away, the Badlands
are right out its back door andDevil's Tower, which is a great
, great place to go to for hikesand whatnot, is two hours away.
(15:50):
But I'll also say this mostdefinitely if you're in the area
, and even if you're two, threehours away, make a stop at
Waldrow.
You know the story and thehistory alone is reason enough
to visit.
They still have five centcoffee.
You get what you pay for interms of the coffee, but it's
(16:12):
coffee.
You know, it's definitelycoffee.
It's not great.
Their maple donuts are prettypopular and very, very good and
it's just an interesting, uniqueplace to be, and that's what
life is about.
You know, it's, as the titleimplies of this episode, the
weirdest drugstore you ever didsee and, with that said, if you
(16:35):
have any questions about it,reach out to me at
backroadodysseypod at gmailcom.
Otherwise, if you find value inthe amount of effort that we
put into each episode here, ithelps us considerably.
If you rate and review the showwherever you're listening now
Genuinely helps and genuinelyappreciate the effort that you
(16:58):
take into doing that, appreciateyou and, with that said, be
good to each other.
We're two next.
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