Now convinced of the power of advertising, the Husteads planted more and more billboards, until they even began to appear in foreign countries. In the 1960s, the Highway Beautification Act severely limited Wall Drug’s billboard campaign, but still the tourists came; and over the years the Husteads (who still own the place, though it’s now in the hands of the third generation) have added more and more popular features to draw them in.

Some 20,000 people a day, it’s estimated, pull off the road to mill around this shambling low-slung complex, so extensive that is scarcely seems like a drugstore anymore. (There is a replica of the original small pharmacy inside, however.)

Along with a “mall” of 26 little shops, Wall Drug has a restaurant, a vast postcard store, a gallery selling Western art, displays of Native American artifacts, a mechanical diorama of an American Indian village and a mocked-up main street of a Western town. But wait! There’s more! Animated figures tucked into every available niche “speak” to the customers, including a roaring T-Rex. Out in the backyard, stands king-size plaster figures of a bucking bronco, a rabbit and the mythical jackalope and an 80-foot-long green brontosaurus statue benignly casts its shade over the children’s play area.