Wall - worth the stop
Located 55 miles east of Rapid City on Interstate 90, Wall is just eight miles north of Badlands National Park.
The name of the town was derived from “The Wall,” the rugged geographical formation of tinted spires, ridges and twisted gullies that stands between two areas of grassy prairie.
Wall has numerous motels and restaurants and a variety of attractions and stores. World famous Wall Drug is “pretty mellow” in the winter, according to Carla Seybold, head of the Wall-Badlands Area Chamber of Commerce.
The drug store is open year round, as are the National Grasslands Visitor Center and the Prairie Homestead.
Doughnuts ready for you at Wall Drug
Recently, it’s been back to the drawing board for Wall Drug.
Since the tourist attraction began selling its famous doughnuts more than 50 years ago, its owners have had to recreate just the right taste more than once after suppliers of doughnut flour and maple frosting went out of business.
Lately, they’re working to find a replacement for the partially hydrogenated oils — also known as transfats — that go into creating Wall Drug cake doughnuts.
Wall Drug decided to address the issue of trans fats in light of a nationwide push to eliminate the unhealthful fats from baked goods and fried foods. New York City has banned all restaurants from using trans fats, which are believed to boost “bad” cholesterol.
Of course, most visitors to Wall Drug aren’t calling for a ban. “People just want Wall Drug doughnuts,” Hustead said. “I’ve never been asked, ‘What do we cook them in.’”
Doughnuts have been a big part of Wall Drug’s business since 1951. When Hustead’s father, Bill Hustead, finished pharmacy school and went into business with his father, the late Ted Hustead, “The first thing my grandpa did was send him to California to doughnut school,” Hustead said. “That’s how important the doughnuts were in 1951.”
Bill Hustead was Wall Drug’s resident doughnut expert. “My dad was a stickler, not only (for) the way they looked,” Ted Hustead said. When they lost a supplier and had to replicate the same flavors, he did the tasting. “He was a real connoisseur of doughnuts.”