Wall, South Dakota: Wall Drug Store

What a fun place for a stop off. There is water shooting up from the ground to the tune of dueling banjos and other tunes while I was there. It's a sort of Midwestern Bellagio fountain show like in Las Vegas. Very clever. Lots to see here.

"Ride 'em Jackalope Girl!" -- Ciara Mulvihill at Wall Drug, Wall, SD, July 2007.

Virgil "Dobby" Hansen of Philip, South Dakota, painted hundreds of the nice wooden billboards that lined the byways of the midwest, hawking the wonders of Wall Drug. Called Dobby because of the paint daubs that covered his clothing, Sherwin and Williams in RED, GREEN, BLACK, YELLOW and of course the nice crisp WHITE, he neatly hand-lettered each sign that stood out so vividly at 70 MPH. Each one, clear, concise and memorable, was a work not only of art but of the pursuit of a job well done.

Dobby began sign painting in South Dakota when he returned from World War II, and painted until his death in 1989, killed by the plywood sheets of an 80-ft. long Wall Drug billboard as it slid off a truck.

Dobby not only painted signs for the Wall Drug, but did woodwork that graces the Wall Drug as well. The brands around the dining room, the wooden Wall Drug in black walnut on the face of the store and the Travelers Chapel sign to name a few.

I just visited Wall Drugs (during the Sturgis rally -- not a good idea) and would like to add that the display of historical photographs is incredible. There must be 1,500-2,000 with lots of interpretive information with them. Easily worth a couple of hours of time. Also, there is a huge and hokey Tyrannasaurous Rex who belches smoke and makes very loud noises every 14 minutes. Also worth waiting for with small children or if you want to wonder why all the other adults are waiting for it too.

Wall Drug suffered a fire that damaged a dining room and the kitchen on April 29th. I was told that much of the art and artifact collection was damaged, but may be restored. The kitchen re-opened just in time for the Memorial Day weekend. The back dining room was still closed. The Rapid City SD paper said there was four to five hundred thousand dollars of damage.