The Badlands, Wall Drug and Wounded Knee

On Saturday we drove from Mitchell, SD to Interior, SD which is in the Badlands of South Dakota. Once you look at the scenery here you can understand why someone would call it the Badlands, especially if they were riding horses.  It would be impossible to cross this area on horses without going around the rock formation areas.  We are staying at an rv park that is located just outside the 244,000 acre Badlands National Park.  In addition to the scenery here this area is known for being one of the richest fossil beds in the world.  Where you don't see the rock formations you see prairie grass.  On our way to Wall Drug we saw a group of big horn sheep and several prairie dogs.  We are staying here two nights.  The rv park we are staying in is one of the few areas in the badlands were we have seen trees.  Our site has trees on both sides giving us a little shade.

Wall Drug is said to be America's favorite roadside attraction.  Over one million people stop there each year.  Wall Drug advertises primarily by bill board on route 90 starting some 600 miles away from the store.  They pay around $400,000 per year on bill board advertising.  During the Vietnam War there were 127 Wall Drug signs in South Vietnam.  They give away free ice water and sell coffee for 5 cents. The drug store is 76,000 square feet and has a restaurant that seats 506 people.  It all started in 1931 when Dorothy and Ted Hustead purchased a drug store that originally opened in 1909 in the town of Wall, SD which had a population of 326 people.  During this time the country was in the depression due to the stock market crash of 1929. They told themselves they would give it five years to get the business up and running well.  Toward the end of the five years the business was still going bad when Dorothy told Ted she was going to take a nap since he didn't need her to help him that afternoon in the store.  A few minutes later she came back up front from the apartment and Ted ask why she came back so soon?  She said she couldn't sleep due to all of the racket the cars were making on the highway.  She then told Ted about her idea of putting up signs offering free ice water in an effort to attract customers to their failing store.  Ted put the signs up and from that day forward the business has been thriving.  In 1981 they gave away over 20,000 glasses of ice water in one day. Today, during the busy season of the summer, about 20,000 people visit Wall Drug in a single day. They have annual sales of $5.5 million.

The Wounded Knee massacre occurred on December 29, 1890.  Wounded Knee, SD is located about 60 miles from where we are staying in the Badlands so we drove over to the site today.  The massacre involved the 7th Calvary who were moving the Lakota Indians five miles across the South Dakota prairie.  When they arrived at Wounded Knee they were in the process of disarming the Indians and the story goes one deaf Indian resisted giving up his rifle since he paid a lot for it.  A shot was fired and then the cavalry opened fire with four Hotchkiss Mountain guns that were mounted on the surrounding hills.  When the shooting stopped over 200 Indian men, women, and children were dead as well as 25 of the cavalry soldiers.   The actual burial and battle site were not much to look at in the way most historic landmarks are kept up.  In fact, the Indians here remind you of the panhandlers in Chicago.  As soon as you get out of your car the Indians descend trying to sell you dream catchers or just asking for money.  All of the houses in this vast area which is a part of the reservation are mostly mobile homes and are all junky looking. I found out the police are out in force on the reservation.  I was pulled over for doing 76 in a 65 by an oncoming reservation policeman.  I think he saw that I didn't have a South Dakota license plate on the front of our car but he just gave me a warning which was good. He asked me how fast I was going and I said around 70 or so.  I told him I knew I was going over the speed limit.  Five minutes later we came up on another speed trap where a policeman was waiting.on a stretch of road that had a posted speed limit of 35 mph.   I guess this was because there were two houses on one side of the highway.   Luckily I was going just over the speed limit. This highway was out in the middle of no where.  The only thing you could ever hit is the occasional oncoming car since there was nothing around but prairie grass 99% of the time. I haven't had a ticket of any kind in probably 20 years or more and could of had two in a span of five minutes on the Lakota Reservation..

Below are some pictures from the last couple of days.

These were taken on our trip between Mitchell and the Badlands

This is a field of sorghum that we saw a lot of.  Going through a little rain at this point.

This is a field of sun flowers that we also saw several fields of

The Badlands

Wall Drug in Wall South Dakota

The store takes up three fourths of the block

These are from our Wounded Knee visit

 This is the post office in Wounded Knee.  The ruts in the drive were so bad I thought I was going to tear something up on the bottom of the car.

 This is one of the better houses we saw on the reservation.  I am not sure what these people do to make a living.  You are probably close to 100 miles out in the middle of no where.  The town there consisted of one little grocery store and the post office.  I didn't even see a gas station.

These were taken at an Indian dance ceremony we attended at the rv park