It was December 1931. Dorothy and Ted Hustead had just bought the only drugstore in a town called Wall on the edge of the South Dakota Badlands. When they told their families about the drugstore they found them skeptical. "That town is in the middle of nowhere," a cousin said, "and furthermore, everybody there is flat broke busted." My father-in-law was understanding, but even he said, "You know, Wall is just about as Godforsaken as you can get." They had been open a few days, and business had been bad. In this little prairie town there were only 326 people, 326 poor people. Most of them were farmers who'd been wiped out either by the Depression or drought. The first few months went by and business didn't improve. "I don't mind being poor, " Dorothy said to Ted "But I wonder if we can use our talents to their fullest here in Wall."Ted said, "Five years, Dorothy, that's what I think we should give to this store. Five good years, and if it doesn't work by then, we will. .." Dorothy replied "We'll make it go. And just think, Ted, pretty soon that monument at Mount Rushmore will be done, and then there will be an endless stream of people going by. I'm sure they'll visit us!" By the time the summer of 1936 came around, business hadn't grown much at all. The five-year trial would be up in December. And then - "Ted? I think I finally saw how we can get all those travellers to come to our store.""And how's that?" Ted asked."Well, now what is it that those travellers really want after driving across that hot prairie? They're thirsty. They want water. Ice cold water! Now we've got plenty of ice and water. Why don't we put up signs on the highway telling people to come here for free ice water? Listen, I even made up a few lines for the sign: "Get a soda . . . Get a root beer . . . turn next corner . . . Just as near . . . To Highway 16 & 14. . . Free Ice Water. . . Wall Drug." The rest is history, they put up their signs 'Free Iced water, 5 cent coffee' and the travellers stopped had free water, bought an icecream or something else. By summer the following year they had to employ 8 girls to help serve. Today Walldrug takes up a whole block and is a drugstore, a bookstore, camping supply shop, cowboy clothing outlet, museum, art gallery and much, much more. It can receive 20,000 visitors a day in the summer! We started seeing the roadsigns 50 miles before we got there and knew we had to visit! What an amazing place. Walldrug is so famous across the USA that US soldiers stationed around the world have erected signs stating the distance to Walldrug. We even saw a photo there of a red double decker bus in London with a Walldrug ad on the side of it. Then there is the singing, piano playing gorilla and the cowboy shop - so many boots, Stetsons, gun holsters. Seeing is believing, Ted and Dorothy certainly put Wall on the map!