Wall Drug Store

About

Wall Drug Store started in 1931, when Ted and Dorothy Hustead bought a small pharmacy in the town of Wall, South Dakota. Business was slow until 1936, when the Husteads put up highway signs offering free ice water to travelers heading toward Mount Rushmore and the Badlands. That decision turned the drugstore into a full city block of connected shops, and the free ice water is still poured today, alongside coffee priced at 5 cents.

The complex now holds a cafe, a western art gallery with more than 300 original paintings, a chapel modeled on an Iowa abbey, an 80-foot fiberglass brontosaurus out back, and an animatronic Tyrannosaurus rex that roars on the hour. Storefronts sell cowboy boots, jewelry, and souvenirs across dozens of connected rooms. The cafe makes its own donuts and also serves buffalo burgers and other diner food, with a posted seating capacity of 530.

As of 2026, the main store is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, the cafe runs 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., the mall shops close at 7:30 p.m., and the pharmacy counter keeps weekday hours only, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Most visitors spend an hour or two working through the shops and the backyard attractions. Families with kids tend to stay longer because of the dinosaur, the photo booths, and the mining sluice.

Wall Drug sits on Interstate 90 next to Badlands National Park and about 60 miles from Mount Rushmore. Billboards for the store line roughly 650 miles of I-90 between Minnesota and Montana, part of why the place draws close to 2 million visitors a year, with as many as 22,000 passing through on a busy summer day.

Accessibility

Wall Drug does not publish its own accessibility or ADA page, so the details below are limited to what can be confirmed about the building itself.

The store fronts Main Street in Wall. Wall Drug grew one storefront at a time after 1931 into a single block-long complex, so floor levels, doorways, and aisle widths are not necessarily uniform from one section to the next. Expect changes in level between sections, particularly in older rooms toward the back of the complex.

Step-free entry, restroom accessibility, wheelchair seating in the cafe, and services for visitors with hearing or vision disabilities are not documented anywhere checked for this listing. Call ahead to (605) 279-2175 if you need a specific accommodation, and ask staff which door offers the most level approach from the sidewalk, since the storefront spans nearly a full block on Main Street.

More accessible places in South Dakota

• 1880 Train (Black Hills Central Railroad) (Hill City)
• Jewel Cave National Monument (Custer)
• Minuteman Missile National Historic Site (Philip)
• Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center (Chamberlain)
• Crazy Horse Memorial (Crazy Horse)
• South Dakota Art Museum (Brookings)

Photo credits

• Wall Drug Store's storefront with yellow awnings and large ranch style signage: Coemgenus at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 (source)
• Wall Drug Store entrance with glass doors and a level sidewalk under a wooden awning: BakedintheHole, CC BY 4.0 (source)
• An 80 foot green dinosaur statue outside Wall Drug Store under a clear sky: Tony Webster from Portland, Oregon, United States, CC BY 2.0 (source)