The truck / utility giant — across the county, tested here

BOUNDARY · Studebaker trucks; the Scout line; AM General

Lead: The county's truck story is large, and almost all of it belongs to other towns; this article prints it at boundary size and keeps only the part that happened on this ground. Studebaker of South Bend built trucks as it built cars: commercial vehicles in the motor line from the early years, a full truck line by the interwar period, the US6 6×6 military cargo truck in the Second World War — just under 200,000 built in the standard account, most sent overseas — and postwar pickups and medium trucks until South Bend production ended in December 1963. Every one of those verbs — designed, built, assembled — sits in South Bend. The successor line ran the same way: Studebaker's defense and truck business on Chippewa Avenue passed to Kaiser-Jeep in 1964 and in time to AM General, headquartered in South Bend, whose Humvee (HMMWV) has been assembled since fall 1984 at Mishawaka, Indiana — production beginning there in 1984, first deliveries in early 1985, and more than 300,000 built in a recent trade profile's count. Mishawaka is not New Carlisle, and no Humvee was assembled here.

The Scout line needs the same discipline, because its modern owner tests on this ground. The International Scout was produced by International Harvester from 1961 to 1980 and assembled at Fort Wayne, Indiana — 532,674 built in the Fort Wayne record — an Allen County factory story, not a St. Joseph County one. What ties the truck giant to this town is real and specific: testing. Studebaker bought some 800 acres (840 acres in park accounts) twelve miles west of South Bend and three miles south of New Carlisle in 1926 and built what park and museum accounts call the first automobile proving ground in America — eight miles of roadway, engineering buildings, garages, and the clubhouse, at a documented cost of $617,375.95 — and trucks and cars built in South Bend were proved on Olive Township ground for the rest of the company's life. The ground outlived the maker: Bendix bought it in 1966 (after Studebaker's 1963 closure), Bosch took it in 1996, and Navistar — the successor to International Harvester — bought it from Bosch, taking over April 1, 2015, to test Class 5 through 8 trucks, school buses, and military vehicles it builds elsewhere. So the boundary resolves into a sentence this town can own: the county and its neighboring cities built the trucks; from 1926 forward, this town's ground is where a century of them were tested — a testing heritage now in its centennial year, marked in October 2026 by the Studebaker National Museum and the county parks at the proving ground itself.

Sources:

1. National Register nomination, Studebaker Clubhouse and Tree Sign (1985): 800 acres purchased 1926, three miles south of New Carlisle; proving ground roadway, buildings, clubhouse; cost $617,375.95; Bendix purchase 1966 and donation of 175 acres for Bendix Woods County Park.
2. St. Joseph County Parks / Bendix Woods accounts and South Bend Tribune centennial coverage (October 2026): 840 acres purchased 1926; Studebaker to Bendix (1963/1966) to Bosch (1996) to Navistar (2015) succession; proving ground and clubhouse both opened 1926.
3. South Bend Tribune, military-vehicle history (2026): Studebaker US6 production just under 200,000; Kaiser-Jeep purchase of Chippewa Avenue facilities 1964; AM General succession.
4. AM General record: HMMWV production at Mishawaka assembly plant from fall 1984, first deliveries early 1985; headquarters South Bend.
5. International Scout record: produced 1961–1980, assembled Fort Wayne, Indiana; Fort Wayne Works total 532,674 Scouts (Allen County / Harvester Homecoming record).
6. Navistar acquisition reporting (2015): former Studebaker / Bendix / Bosch proving grounds near New Carlisle, 668 acres, three-mile oval, Class 5–8 trucks, school buses, and military vehicles to be tested.