2013 - October 1st - Wall Drug

Continuing our travel day, our next stop was at the well publicized Wall Drug Store. There are signs from 500 miles away announcing how much further away it is until you reach Wall Drug! Mary Anne and I had stopped here in 1976 and it just wouldn't be a trip through South Dakota without a stop at Wall Drug. Check out this link to see all it offers! The store is cheesy, campy, and a one-of-a-kind experience. Ted and Dorothy Hustead founded Wall Drug. When the new highway took all of their business away, they started advertising on the highway billboards for free ice water and nickle coffee to bring people in. It worked! They kept expanding with trinkets, souvenirs and all kinds of stuff plus the real pharmaceutical aspect of the store. It was the only thing in town and now takes up about four blocks, definitely the largest business in town. They still give away ice water and have 5 cent coffee! Any cheesy thing you can imagine is there. They do have some nice things too, but the draw is the variety of the cheesy souvenirs.


One of the famous tales to be told is that of the Western Jackalope (a mix of a Jack Rabbit and Antelope), and no place does it better than Wall Drug Store. As the story goes:
The first white man to see this singular fauna specimen was a trapper named George McLean in 1829. When he was told of it later he was promptly denounced as a liar. An odd trait of the Jackalope is its ability to imitate the human voice. Cowboys singing to their herds at night have been startled to hear their lonesome melodies repeated faithfully from some nearby hillside. The phantom echo comes from the throat of some Jackalope. They sing only on dark nights before a thunderstorm. Stories that they sometimes get together and sing in chorus are discounted by those who know them best. 

So here are some pictures, including the giant cement one with Barb and us riding!  
 
And inside Wall Drug Store ...

And as advertised, the 5 cent coffee ... 
       
Not to be outdone, Barb drives the fake horses with the fake covered wagon! 

If you haven't had your fill of cheese yet, see the complete album by clicking on this link!