SALT LAKE CITY — When President Donald Trump travels to Mount Rushmore for an early July Fourth celebration with a controversial fireworks display, he’ll be just one of the millions of Americans heading to national parks this summer.
In 2019, over 327 million people visited national parks — this year that number is down because many parks closed during March and April due to concerns over the coronavirus. And that has left small businesses in gateway communities struggling. The small rural towns that line the highways leading up to the national parks have taken a financial hit as well.
In the West, most national parks are in remote, rural areas, on paths beaten for the sole purpose of driving into the wilderness. Tourists pass through tiny towns like Lee Vining, California (near Yosemite) and Springdale, Utah (near Zion) that don’t get many outsiders in the offseason.
Wall, South Dakota, is one of those towns, with tens of thousands of people passing through each summer on their way to Mount Rushmore.
With a population of about 800, Wall, the “geographic middle of nowhere,” is most famous for being home to Wall Drug, a pharmacy-turned-tourist wonderland. A few of its attractions include a gallery featuring hundreds of Western-themed oil paintings, a life-size robot T-Rex, and a restaurant that seats over 500 people.
The Fourth of July weekend typically is one of the busiest for Wall Drug, said owner Rick Hustead, 70, a lifelong resident of Wall. Business has been slower since the store reopened in the beginning of June, with revenue dipping by 23%, but it’s starting to pick up.
Hustead closed the store for 70 days beginning in March — which is typically when the busy season begins, and re-opened June 1. “We have six good months and we’ve missed one and a half of them. They carry us through the year,” Hustead explained.
Before reopening, Hustead eliminated half the seating in the massive dining room, put up plexiglass shields, and all his employees now wear face masks.
While sales are down, they are making enough to survive. Hustead’s biggest problem has been staffing — 45% of his 200 employees did not come back to work for the summer because seasonal workers from out of town did not come to Wall due to the coronavirus. Hustead and his daughter, Sarah, have been helping run the restaurant every day. In order to cope with the staffing shortages they’ve reduced hours and closed parts of the store.
“We’re fighting for the survival of our business,” Hustead said. “We don’t really want to get in financial dire straits. We’re hopeful about the future, but it’s a tough time. I’m saying my prayers.”
South Dakota had a total of 6,826 confirmed cases of the coronavirus as of July 2, according to data from the state’s health department. The state’s daily number of COVID-19 cases are relatively small compared to other parts of the country, and there hasn’t yet been talk of shutting businesses down.
The greatest concentration of cases is in Minnehaha County in the eastern part of the state, while Pennington County, where Mount Rushmore and Wall Drug are situated, has the third highest rate with 536 cases.
The second phase of the pandemic is already starting to hit more rural areas, and experts are worried about the capacity of small towns to deal with the virus.
In a recent study on the susceptibility and resiliency of rural areas to COVID-19, one researcher found “about 33% of rural counties are highly susceptible to COVID‐19, driven by older and health‐compromised populations, and care facilities for the elderly.” The author cited a shortage of physicians, a large number of uninsured people, and poor internet access limiting the potential of telemedicine as just a few of the factors that could make rural areas more vulnerable should the virus spike.
Small towns across the West are getting visitors
Wall, South Dakota isn’t the only small town seeing a steady number of tourists pulling over on their way to national parks.
Rainey Creek Country Store, located in Swan Valley, Idaho, with a population of about 220, is famous for its square ice cream cones, which tourists often stop for on their way to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The manager of the store, Jamie Cottle, said they’ve been so busy she put portable toilets outside for customers waiting in line.
On Memorial Day weekend they sold over 10,000 ice cream cones, and on normal weekends they are selling around 5,000.
Cottle said wearing masks is optional for both employees and customers. They are taking extra precautions with sanitizing and frequently changing gloves.
“It’s a very public place with lots of in and out, and that’s a little scary. You know, when people come in and out we don’t know where they’ve been,” Cottle said.
The Cowboy Cafe in Dubois, Wyoming, with a population of about 971, and en route to the Grand Tetons is getting a slightly slower start. The restaurant features American food and an Old West facade that especially appeals to vacationers from out of the country. But this year the big buses filled with foreigners aren’t coming.
The whole staff was laid off for a month, but now everyone is back at work. Domestic tourists and locals are keeping business going. They are also hoping to make it through the summer without having to close again.
A family history of survival
The Husteads, in Wall, South Dakota, have a history of persevering in the face of economic uncertainty. Part of Wall Drug lore is the story of how Ted Hustead and his wife Dorothy bought the small town pharmacy in the middle of the Dust Bowl. They barely made any money for five years, and it wasn’t until Ted put up a signs on the highway advertising free ice water and five cent coffee that people from around the country started stopping.
Rick Hustead said his dad, Bill, left town for a while but thought, “Gee, if I ever go back into business with my parents, I would like to really expand Wall Drug and make it unique, unusual and magnificent.”
It was under Bill Husted’s reign that the store went from a 1,000-square-foot pharmacy to the 76,000-square-foot attraction it is today.
The plexiglass dividers are just another addition to help the 89-year-old drugstore weather the latest chapter of history.
Rick wants to pass the family business onto his daughter. “We’d like to make it to our 90th anniversary next year.”
For now, they’re still selling five cent coffee, and ice water is free.