Cook Travelogue 2007-8-9: The journey home

We pulled out of Divide, MT on the morning of Sunday May 3, heading east toward Maine. The second day out we stayed overnight in Wall, South Dakota, home of the famous Wall Drug.

Wall Drug has been well known since the 1930's when the Don and Marjory Hustead operated a drug store in the South Dakota prairie town of Wall. The story told in the cafe brochure tells about a struggling enterprise, until Marjory came up with the idea to put signs out on the highway advertising free ice water. You have to remember that cars did not have air conditioning in those days. With the addition of her signs, more and more people began stopping in for the free ice water and also purchasing other merchandise offered in the store. The signs along the road continue to bring in travelers today. In fact there are now several block-size parking lots to handle trailers and big RV's.
We decided to have breakfast in their cafe, where the coffee is still $.05 cents, really, five cents for coffee with refills! There is currently an extended collection of buildings and an even more extensive collection of merchandise available in today's block long Wall Drug.

I am guessing that the Hustead's put the entire town of Wall on the map. The picture of a plaque, commemorating their contribution to the city of Wall, and the surrounding area, hangs in the center of the business district.

The section of the dining room, where we had breakfast, contained hundreds of western art paintings and sculptures, many from famous artists.

Butch Cassady

The Sundance Kid

This carved post was in the center of the seating area. There were only a few people in the restaurant, the morning we were there, but it was obvious they were set up for large crowds. The building is maze like, and it is easy to wander around and loose track of where you are. Found this counter where a woman was making fresh donuts the old fashioned way.