Wall Drug Backyard

Ted and Dorothy Hustead bought the small drugstore in Wall in 1931, in the depths of the Depression, and for years it barely scraped by in a town most travelers blew straight past. The turning point came in 1936, when Dorothy suggested luring the hot, thirsty motorists on the nearby highway with a simple promise: free ice water. Ted put up signs, and the cars began to stop.

The idea worked beyond anything they imagined. Wall Drug grew from a struggling drugstore into a sprawling complex of shops, restaurants, and galleries, and its hand-painted signs multiplied along the roads until they became famous in their own right, mimicked and joked about across the world. Through it all, the free ice water has never stopped, a small act of hospitality that turned a dying prairie town's drugstore into an icon.

Behind the main store lies the Backyard, an outdoor courtyard designed as a play space and photo gallery of the Old West. Here families find a giant jackalope, that tall-tale hybrid of jackrabbit and antelope, to climb on and pose with, along with cowboys, a covered wagon, a mining scene, and other frontier statues scattered across the space.

A splashing water feature and shaded seating make the Backyard a genuine rest stop on a hot drive, a place to cool down and let kids burn energy. It is free to wander, low-key, and a little wonderfully silly, exactly the sort of unhurried, no-pressure attraction that fits the spirit of Wall Drug as a whole.

Wall owes much of its traffic to its position at the northern gateway to Badlands National Park. The striped spires and eroded canyons of the Badlands begin just south of town, and the park's scenic Loop Road, its overlooks, and its wilder Sage Creek country are all within easy reach.

That location, right off Interstate 90 between the Missouri River and the Black Hills, makes Wall a natural break on the long cross-state drive. Many travelers stop for the ice water and the Backyard and then swing down into the Badlands, or the other way around, making the store and the park a classic paired stop.

Spring brings mild weather and thinner crowds, a pleasant time to wander the Backyard before the summer rush, with the Badlands greening up just to the south.

Summer is the peak season, when the courtyard, the water feature, and the shade are most appreciated by families crossing the hot plains, and Wall Drug is at its busiest. Fall offers crisp air, golden Badlands light, and fewer people, some of the finest travel weather of the year. Winter is cold and quiet on the plains, with the store still welcoming travelers and the free ice water flowing even in the snow.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.