Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Traveling America's backroads, history and road trip enthusiasts - Noah and Noodles - unearth fascinating locations overlooked while traveling.
Living out of a van, they research and visit each story location to share the (often shocking) secrets held within.
If you love travel, history and thoughtful storytelling - join us on the road!
Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Wall Drug - The World's Weirdest Drug Store
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!
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Cruisin' down the street. I wonder where this road would lead. So many possibilities. Care to share what you think. Oh, noodle Dolls, what do you see? Back Road Odyssey.
Speaker 1:What started as a modest drugstore 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, the famous five-cent coffee. We could go on. But the question now is this Just what is the secret behind Wall Drug's success?
Speaker 1:Join my dog Noodles and I as we explore the ins and outs of America's largest and most bizarre drugstore. We're in Wyoming, driving west. If you know anything about Waldrug, you'll know about all of their signs. There's an absolutely ludicrous amount of promotions spanning every conceivable direction. So, like I said, we're still in Wyoming and we've already passed Waldrug signs promoting donuts stores, you name it, but with a very relevant caveat we're still something like 240 miles away from Waldrug. I'll say this I've been to Waldrug once before, years ago, but at the time my reaction wasn't instant fascination.
Speaker 1:It was more genuine confusion with what this place is. I parked, I walked around and simply asked myself what is this fever dream of a place? That was my experience, but now, with context and a bit more desire to understand the full story of Wall Drug. I expect a different experience, who's to say? But in my almost three hours left of driving before I actually get to Wall Drug, I want to ask myself the following question how does something like this come to exist where it exists now, in the middle of nowhere? That town is in the middle of nowhere and, furthermore, everyone there is flat broke busted.
Speaker 1:A skeptical cousin of Ted Houston, co-founder of wall drug. The year is 1931. Dorothy and Ted Houston buy the only drugstore in Wall, south Dakota. The prospects of the store are, to put it mildly, poor. Residing at the edge of the wind-plagued Badlands, the lonesome town has a population of only 326. Most are farmers, droughts are common. It is also the height of the Depression. No wonder that Dorothy and Ted's thoughts race as they close their makeshift curtains which divide their meager living space from the rest of the store. How can we make it? Can we even make it? Time will tell. They must have thought Five years, dorothy. That's what I think. We should give this store Five good years. And if it doesn't work, by then, da-da-da, ted Houston, ted and Dorothy's allotted five years pass and business remains poor, but what is assuredly a slow death sentence for the store Holtz with one idea on a scorchingly hot South Dakota summer day, well, sweating and swatting flies in the desolate store.
Speaker 1:Dorothy looks out at the passing cars traversing by the nearby byways US 14 and US 16. Whilst watching, she thinks to herself a thought that will change everything. I bet they are thirsty. Get a soda, get a root beer. Turn the corner just as near to Highway 16 and 14.
Speaker 1:Free ice water Waldrug the first Waldrug sign, designed and written by Dorothy Houston. It's 1936. Unbearably hot. Passing cars don't have AC, everyone's miles and miles from anything else. And, contrary to what's rather trivial and common today, water, good ice water, and these parts at this time might as well be gold. Dorothy realizes this, and so she leans into the store's large supply of ice and water that very day, designing a sign advertising free ice water to passing cars if they came to visit the store. Her first move is changing the name of the drug store from Houston Drug to something that would more simply fit easily onto signs. And bam, waldrug is born.
Speaker 1:After placing her sign for free water, fortunes quickly and miraculously turn around. The newly named Waldrug becomes a haven for weary travelers who stop desperately needing cold water and end up purchasing ice cream and other supplies. Well, there, get this. 20,000 people flock to Waldron the very next summer because of these signs, because of this free, seemingly unimportant ice water. With the completion of the nearby Mount Rushmore in 1941, a further influx of visitors becomes constant. And from then on, for Waldrug, the sky, it seems, is the limit. Hey now, hey now, hey now. This is what dreams are made of Lizzie McGuire.
Speaker 1:We are camped right outside the parking lot of Waldrug and you know, driving in here, this is one of these places. That is the town. It takes up the entirety of Main Street. It's a little bit of a long road, man like. What a thing to start so small and years later, grow into something so massive and so visited and, importantly, to pivot from a simple drug store to 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, and that's what I'd like to explore. That moment, or those couple moments, from filling prescriptions to feeding robotic T-Rexes every day. That, to me, is what's so fascinating about this place.
Speaker 1:If you'll indulge me, I'm going to go turn the AC on for noodles. Walk around a bit. Got to clear my head after you know passing all those signs. Give me a second, I'm going to clear my head and go into up my eyes. I saw the sign Ace of Base 1993. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, as the saying goes. One sign turns into 20, 30, eventually 3,000 signs From Paris to Amsterdam, all advertising a little drugstore at the edge of the South Dakota Badlands. Today they've toned down their spending a bit. Paris, it seems to have cost a pretty penny and didn't bring in many Parisians. But there's still something like 300 signs in South Dakota alone and more in Wyoming and Minnesota.
Speaker 1:Wall drugs' fingerprints are and have been everywhere, so we thought it'd be appropriate. Let's take a quick drive past some of the signs. Shall we Wall drug or bust Free ice water Wall Drug. Black Hills Gold Wall Drug. Homemade Ice Cream Wall Drug. Homemade Donuts Wall Drug. Old Fashioned Soda Fountain Wall Drug, cowboy Up Boots, buckles and Belts and a whole lot more Wall drug Only five cents Hot coffee Wall drug. Thank you, come again. Wall drug.
Speaker 1:The point is this there was and is a plethora of signs, but ironically it's these signs the very thing that saved Waldrug from certain failure, the very thing that it was and is known for that embarrass at first at least the heir to the Waldrug legacy after Ted and Dorothy. And it's these crazy amount of signs that in themselves, in a roundabout way, lead to the wild expansion of a simple drug store. Let's backtrack just a bit. Well, at college, some 400 miles away, Bill Houston, son of Ted and Dorothy and heir to the wall drug throne, as is often the case, is asked where are you from? Whilst meeting new people. But soon a problem arose with Bill. Anytime he said he was from Wall, south Dakota, the response would always be oh, that's the town, with the ludicrous amount of signs that are pointing toward this tiny drugstore. That's not really of note once you get there. And so eventually, in response, bill avoids saying where he's from altogether. He felt a disconnect between the number of signs and the location that each of these signs was trying to lead you to. You'd see 100 signs pointing toward this place and you'd get there, and it's just a drugstore.
Speaker 1:It's at this time where Bill says to himself if I ever return to the store now the family business I'm going to create something worth stopping for, something that lives up to what all of these signs are promising A destination. So that's exactly what Bill does years at Waldrug. Bill takes the 1,000 square foot store and turns it into a staggering 78,000 foot complex Housing. You name it homemade donuts, rock stores, western ware curators. You get the point. Waldrug becomes Waldrug under Bill and in a large part because of the science that we're advertising such a small business.
Speaker 1:Looking back, it's funny how one hot summer day and a free glass of water grows into, quite literally, something out of a dream. My friends, there's no other way to say this I'm in the belly of the beast Waldrug. Look, they're known for their homemade donuts. Legend has it that Bill, the son of the founders of Waldrug, worked for free at a donut shop to figure out their secrets. And it's good, solid donuts. I already visited the Ted Husted robotic orchestra band. I'm not sure exactly what to call it, but it features dancing skunks and a bunch of people playing instruments.
Speaker 1:Uh, the weasel or something pops out at some point. I don't know. Uh, where to start, I guess, with this. I don't know. My question now is walking around this giant complex. I'm not curious about the logistics of how it happened. That doesn't interest me as much. My, my question now walking around here is this why am I telling this story?
Speaker 1:You know what makes the strange story of Waldrug worth telling. Why should you listen? 89 years later, the little pharmacy on the edge of the South Dakota Badlands still offers free water and sees over 200 million visitors each year. So why tell this story? What's the point? For myself, the story of Waldrug is a tale of hope. Everyone goes through periods of strife, of doubt, of sadness, but it's the recognition of a limitless future that makes life worth living sometimes, whatever your past, whatever your present. Yes, it's kind of cliche, but it's what you make it, and Dorothy Husted recognized this in her vacant store on that hot South Dakota summer day so many years ago. It's Noah here. Thank you for listening to Backroad Odyssey. So this story fits perfectly with what we'd like to say with each episode of our podcast here, and that's that any place, no matter how desolate or otherwise ignored, can become a destination and something worth admiring and looking into.
Speaker 1:So, with that said, some advice. If you're looking into going to Walt 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's about. It is, and it always has been a destination among destinations, and the Crazy Horse Monument is only an hour away, the Badlands are right out its back door and Devil's Tower, which is a great, great place to go to for hikes and whatnot, is two hours away. But I'll also say this most definitely if you're in the area, and even if you're two, three hours away, make a stop at Waldrow.
Speaker 1:You know the story and the history alone is reason enough to visit. They still have five cent coffee. You get what you pay for in terms of the coffee, but it's coffee. You know, it's definitely coffee. It's not great. Their maple donuts are pretty popular and very, very good and it's just an interesting, unique place to be, and that's what life is about. You know, it's, as the title implies of this episode, the weirdest drugstore you ever did see and, with that said, if you have any questions about it, reach out to me at backroadodysseypod at gmailcom. Otherwise, if you find value in the amount of effort that we put into each episode here, it helps us considerably. If you rate and review the show wherever you're listening now Genuinely helps and genuinely appreciate the effort that you take into doing that, appreciate you and, with that said, be good to each other. We're two next.
