The Founding Works, Whole: The Proving Ground as a Works, 1926 to the Present Holders

Studebaker Proving Ground · Bendix · Bosch · Navistar / International Proving Grounds

Lead: In 1926 the Studebaker Corporation bought farmland three miles south of New Carlisle and built, on purpose and from scratch, the thing the American industry had not had before: a controlled ground where automobiles could be tested against measured roads instead of public ones. Read as a works — which is this article's assignment, distinct from the park-gift telling in Recreation — it is the town ground's founding technology installation, and it has never stopped working.

The National Register nomination (Studebaker Clubhouse and Tree Sign, entered September 18, 1985; prepared by Elizabeth A. Straw, February 1984) is the first-hand instrument, and its figures govern where later retellings scatter. Studebaker purchased 800 acres from area farmers in 1926 (later retellings give 840 and 850 acres; the nomination's 800 is printed first and the variance is flagged in the closure sheet as a delta candidate, not silently resolved). The facility was designed and constructed under Maurice Thorne, who had supervised construction of the General Motors Proving Ground the previous year. It consisted of eight miles of roadway, an engineering building, garages, and the clubhouse; total cost of acquisition and construction was $617,375.95. The clubhouse itself — Ernest W. Young, architect; Colonial Revival, U-shaped, red brick — housed and fed roughly 100 proving-ground employees, the works' resident crew. The nomination and the parks record together support the works' contemporary billing: the first model controlled automotive test facility built by an American automobile company, a year ahead of Packard's ground.

The works' signature artifact is also a piece of test-ground engineering. In 1938 the Civilian Conservation Corps planted approximately 8,000 pine trees — white pine borders, red pine infill, six-inch seedlings — spelling S-T-U-D-E-B-A-K-E-R over one-half mile, each letter 200 feet across and 250 feet long, designed by Studebaker engineers Michael de Blumenthal and Mel S. Niemier as a salute to aviation: a sign meant to be read from the air, at the edge of a ground whose product was measurement. It was listed with the clubhouse on the National Register in 1985 and recognized by Guinness in 1987 as the world's largest living advertisement.

The technical course after Studebaker is a succession of test operators, not a closure. The U.S. Army Ordnance Department's wartime tenancy (1943–45) is told in the war-production article. In 1966 Studebaker sold the proving ground to the Bendix Corporation; Bendix donated the 175-acre clubhouse/tree-sign parcel to the new county parks board (the gift telling is Recreation's; here it registers only as a severance from the works) and continued operating the remaining roughly 625 acres, including the original track and engineering buildings, as its proving ground. Bosch succeeded Bendix in 1996. After Bosch closed its South Bend operation in 2011, part of the ground was restored to use from April 2013 as the New Carlisle Test Facility. On April 1, 2015, Navistar acquired the facility from Bosch — reported at 668 acres — and reopened it as the Navistar Proving Grounds, replacing its Fort Wayne technical center: a 3-mile paved, banked oval permitting steady 65–70 mph running by heavy tractor-trailers, on- and off-road courses, rough-surface durability routes, and shops supporting extensive truck and bus testing, with other manufacturers (Daimler Trucks North America among them) testing as tenants. In its present form, a century on, the works operates as the International Proving Grounds of International Motors, described in its centennial account at 675 acres with the original 3-mile oval, steep durability grades, and original buildings still in service. The acreage figures differ by holder and by what is counted (800 / 668 / 675); each is printed with its holder and date, unmerged. What was tested here across the century is the through-line: Studebaker cars first, Army vehicles under Ordnance, Bendix and Bosch component and vehicle programs, and Navistar/International heavy trucks and buses today — a testing works, never a factory. Nothing was manufactured on this ground; measurement was the product.

Sources:

1. National Register of Historic Places nomination, Studebaker Clubhouse and Tree Sign, NRHP 85002430, npgallery.nps.gov — 800 acres purchased 1926; eight miles of roadway, engineering building, garages, clubhouse; cost $617,375.95; Maurice Thorne, construction supervisor; clubhouse for c. 100 employees; tree sign dimensions and 1938 CCC planting of c. 8,000 pines; 1966 sale to Bendix and donation of 175 acres; Bendix continued use of 625 acres incl. track and engineering buildings. Read in full.
2. St. Joseph County Parks, Bendix Woods histories, sjcparks.org — tree-sign designers Michael de Blumenthal and Mel S. Niemier; 1969 c. 20-acre sale; Guinness recognition 1987.
3. Heavy Duty Trucking via Big Mack Trucks forum reprint, May 19, 2015 — Navistar took over Apr. 1, 2015; 668 acres; 3-mile banked oval, 65–70 mph; replaced Fort Wayne technical center; bought from Bosch, which had acquired it from Bendix in the 1990s; Daimler Trucks a tenant.
4. International Motors centennial account, “100 Years of Proving Grounds,” 2026 (video description) — International Proving Grounds, New Carlisle, 675 acres; original oval, grades, and buildings in service. Treated as the holder's own account.