The Fort Wayne Works: sixty years of trucks

1922 – 1983

The plant: In 1922 the International Harvester Company began construction on the east side of Fort Wayne, at East Pontiac Street and Bueter Road; production began in 1923. The Fort Wayne Works became the company's heavy-truck plant and one of the defining factories of the city's industrial century — the factory transformation itself is the Industrial Revolution section's subject; what belongs here is the vehicle record. Before it closed, the plant had built 1,527,299 medium- and heavy-duty trucks. The one-millionth, a semi-tractor, was completed on 27 September 1963. By mid-century the city carried the title the record gives it: "Heavy-Duty Truck Capital of the World." The plant was the area's largest employer, with about 10,000 workers at its peak; the Allen County Genealogical Society's Harvester timeline counts 10,600 on the payroll in early 1979, a figure that spans the works and its engineering and parts operations. The plant's sound was the 1928 Crosby steam whistle, which became the works' symbol; Harvester donated it to the historical society in 1984, and it is held by the History Center today.

The end: The shutdown came as a front page: the Journal Gazette of 28 September 1982 announced the closing and 2,100 layoffs. The city fought for the plant with an aid package of $31 million, against $27.6 million assembled by Springfield, Ohio — and lost. The last truck rolled off the Fort Wayne line on 15 July 1983. What stayed was the office end of the business: Harvester's engineering and parts distribution operations remained in Fort Wayne, employing about 2,000 people in 1984, and the Allen County Public Library holds the company's International Harvester / Navistar collection, spanning the 1920s to the 2010s. The works site itself has been redeveloped in part as the Harvester Park mixed-use project. For two generations, a very large share of the heavy trucks on American roads had been built in Fort Wayne; after July 1983, none were.

Sources:

1. ACGSI, International Harvester in Allen County — construction begun 1922 at East Pontiac Street and Bueter Road, production from 1923, 1,527,299 trucks built, the one-millionth truck of 27 September 1963, the "Heavy-Duty Truck Capital of the World," the 28 September 1982 Journal Gazette front page, the last truck of 15 July 1983, and the employment figures.
2. The History Center, Fort Wayne — the Harvester statements of plant production and the Scout totals, and the 1928 Crosby steam whistle, donated 1984.
3. Journal Gazette reporting of the 1982–83 closing fight — the $31 million city aid package against Springfield, Ohio's $27.6 million, and the roughly 2,000 engineering and parts-distribution jobs remaining in 1984.