You may not have known that Fort Wayne, Indiana was once known as the “Heavy-Duty Truck Capital of the World”. The Summit City was also one of the leading manufacturing communities in the U.S. between 1923 and 1983 because of International Harvester.
“They built 1.5 million trucks in Fort Wayne over that time, and they changed the world here and did some things that changed America in a lot of ways,” says Ryan Duvall with Harvester Homecoming, which is a non-profit organization honoring the historic connection between International Harvester and the City of Fort Wayne.
“At it’s peak, International Harvester employed 10,600 or so folks over several different facilities in Fort Wayne,” according to DuVall. “Not only did you have the heavy-duty truck plant, you also had a Scout plant, you had the company’s main engineering center. There were over 11 buildings that were serving International Harvester.
“It was also the first industrial park ever built in America. You had trucking companies like North American Van Lines for example you had Fruehauf Trailer located just around the corner. There were so many companies linked to that Truck Works facility, that it was probably responsible for employing more than 30,000 people every year that it was running,” he says.
DuVall says his passion for International Harvester first started by accident when his father bought him a 1974 International Harvester Scout when he was a 16-year-old growing up in Terre Haute.
“It was a truck I did not want, because it had a little rust and a little Bondo. It wasn’t a ‘sexy’ sports car, for sure, but that’s what he gave me to drive and it was probably the greatest thing he ever gave me. I fell in love with that truck shortly after he gave it to me, and drove it until I couldn’t drive it anymore,” he says.
Years later, a job writing and reporting as a food critic for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette brought him to the home base where International Harvester had manufactured the Scout.
“I’d lived here in Fort Wayne about a month and called my dad one day and said, ‘You know, there are a lot of Scouts up here. I’m surprised how many I’ve seen. I might be able to find one up here,’ and he says, ‘Hey dummy, that’s where they built them!’ As a kid, I didn’t know where they made them—I didn’t care!”
Even though the last truck from International Harvester rolled off the assembly line in Fort Wayne back in 1983, later following by the company’s purchase by Tenneco and brand merger with Case in 1985, DuVall decided to lead the charge to honor the tens-of-thousands of employees—as well as all of the hard work that those Hoosiers put into building the millions of trucks made at that facility.
“In Auburn, Indiana, they have museums for the Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg, and they have a huge festival there every year. South Bend honors the Studebaker each year with a big festival. Why aren’t we doing something here in Fort Wayne—even though International Harvester still is part of an active company, and even though they pulled out of Fort Wayne more or less twice at different points—what happened here was important enough we should remember it. Especially the Scout that was manufactured in Fort Wayne, which was an iconic vehicle.”
Not only does Harvester Homecoming host a two-day festival each year in early August, there are also plans to build a permanent International Harvester museum just down the road in nearby New Haven on Minnich Road between two exits on Interstate 469.
“Our museum is temporarily at the original International Harvester heavy-duty plant, while the city officials in New Haven, Indiana are helping us build a brand-spanking new museum just down the road where we can show everyone this history, just a stone’s throw from where it happened,” says DuVall.
The 2025 Harvester Homecoming Festival is scheduled for August 1 and 2, 2025 at the site of the old International Harvester facility at Fort Wayne Truck Works.
CLICK HERE for the Harvester Homecoming website.
CLICK BELOW to check out Hoosier Ag Today’s podcast interview with Ryan DuVall, as he shares his love for the International Harvester Scout—and how he became involved with keeping the company’s history and legacy alive in Fort Wayne.
