Get a soda. Get a root beer. Turn the next corner. Just near to highway 16 & 14. Free ice water. Wall Drug.

On the northern edge of the South Dakota Badlands, in December 1931, in the midst of the Depression, Dorothy and Ted Hustead bought a drugstore in the small town of Wall, population 326.

In the middle of nowhere, the drug store did not thrive for the first several years. Until one day in 1936, Dorothy Hustead decided to put signs along the highway offering free ice water. According to family lore, when Ted arrived home from putting up the signs there was a line of cars with thirsty tourists.

When I-90 was constructed, the Husteads built an 80ft dinosaur on the edge of the highway exit. The family continued to put up painted wood signs throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico. Soldiers from South Dakota began requesting signs and placing them along the roads where they were stationed.

In 1965, the Highway Beautification Act destroyed most billboards and highway signs. However, there are still signs throughout Europe and the East. Wall Drug spends approximately $300,000 on signage, grosses $11 million a year, and stops 70% of all motorists on I-90.

Approximately 20,000 people stop a day at Wall Drug, producing 5000 glasses of water from a well behind the drug store made from 3000 pounds of ice. The Husteads continue to offer water, free coffee and donuts to honeymooners, and five-cent coffee to other customers.

Researched, written, and narrated by University of West Florida Public History Student Kelcie Lloyd