Fort Wayne's Harvester History

In Fort Wayne, pride in Indiana’s automotive heritage runs deep. From 1923 until 1983, International Harvester manufactured more than 1.5 million heavy-duty trucks and over 500 thousand Scouts (an early sports utility vehicle) from a complex on the city’s east side, earning its Truck Plant 1 the nickname “The Heavy-Duty Truck Capitol of the World.”

On November 14, Ryan DuVall, founder and CEO of Harvester Homecoming, presents an illustrated talk on the history and legacy of International Harvester, including the significance of Fort Wayne’s 1952 International Harvester Engineering Building, a current entry on Indiana Landmarks’ 10 Most Endangered list. Since 2019, nonprofit Harvester Homecoming has used the landmark as a rallying point for preserving the company’s heritage, housing 65 International Harvester and Navistar vehicles and company artifacts there, and hosting an annual festival at the site that draws thousands of Harvester fans and former workers.

Tickets are free for Indiana Automotive and Indiana Landmarks members with RSVP, $10/general public. Doors open at Indiana Landmarks Center at 5:30 p.m., with brief highlights from our Indiana Automotive affinity group beginning at 6 p.m., followed by a talk and Q&A. Join us in person or watch online via Zoom.

Sponsored by Indiana Automotive.

Indiana Automotive, an affinity group of Indiana Landmarks, celebrates Indiana’s early auto visionaries and the preservation of the cars they made, their factories, showrooms, and homes, and roadside architecture birthed by the auto age. Indiana Automotive annually offers lectures, tours, and news of interest to all who love vintage cars and the places where they were designed, built, tested, and sold. Learn more.

Host or Publisher Indiana Landmarks