Harvester Homecoming to return with focus on big rigs, sights on possible museum
By Daniel Strohl
- Jul 10, 2020
Jeff Greer's International Transtar Eagle. Photo via Harvester Homecoming on Facebook.
"History just oozed out of the place," Ryan DuVall said of the inaugural Harvester Homecoming that took place last year in Fort Wayne, Indiana, an event designed to reconnect the city with part of its industrial history. "I felt it was important from a marketing standpoint to keep that ball rolling. And we want to make sure that the people who missed it last year get a chance to see what it's all about." So not only will DuVall go forth with a second annual show and reunion, he's already started to discuss the possibility of an International Harvester museum with town leaders as one of several tributes to the truckmaker.
As of July 4, the state of Indiana entered Phase 4.5 of its re-opening plan, which allows fairs, festivals, and similar outdoor events to resume. (And, by the time of this year's Homecoming, the state is expected to enter Phase 5.) In addition, according to DuVall, earlier this week the Allen County Department of Health gave its blessing to the event, which last year attracted hundreds of International Harvester Scouts, pickups, and heavy-duty trucks--along with 12,000 attendees--to Scout Industrial Park.
Among those hundreds of trucks, a few noteworthy ones came out of the woodwork, including a long-rumored third Scout SSV prototype that had never been seen in public before, the remains of the very first Scout, and the last factory-built Scout. More important, DuVall said, were the connections that attendees made with the people who had a hand in creating their vehicles.
The third Scout SSV prototype, which will return to this year's Harvester Homecoming. Photos courtesy Ryan DuVall.
"There was one guy walking around, you wouldn't expect him to be into Internationals, and when one of the Scout owners asked this guy if he could tell him about his truck, the guy said there was no need--he designed it," DuVall said. "Turned out, he was Dick Hatch, the head of design for International Harvester for 20 years."
As DuVall noted, many longtime International Harvester employees remained in the area after the plant shut down in the Eighties, and then dropped by last year's Homecoming to see what had become of the trucks they assembled. Some recalled individual trucks they'd worked on. "I wish I had a recorder on every single person out there," he said.
He did, however, manage to interview a number of former IH employees, including Hatch and chief engineer Larry Hilsmeier, both of whom he hopes to include in a documentary on the company. "I'm just trying to get these guys on tape before they're gone," he said. Indeed, Hilsmeier died this May after DuVall filmed an interview with him.
DuVall has also taken on a number of other efforts to commemorate International's presence in Fort Wayne. "I'm trying to be the spirit to revive the International Harvester legacy in Fort Wayne," he said. "When you think about it, these trucks built America in a lot of ways." To begin with, he would like to get the former factory buildings on the National Register of Historic Places and to place historical markers out front of them. Then, eventually, he'd like to establish a museum dedicated to Internationals.
One of the many former International Harvester factory buildings in Fort Wayne. Google Street View screen capture.
"I've found that it's not hard to find somebody to give you a building, but it's hard to keep it open," he said. "I've already got people trying to give me trucks... we have some display cases and some furniture to work with already. I think there is potential for something big, but I don't want to jump the gun just because we can do it or just because somebody offers a building."
He said he's in talks with the city of Fort Wayne and with the International Harvester Collectors Club to plan the museum, which he said he'd like to place in the old IH engineering plant. As it is, he already has permission to convert the engineering plant into a mini-museum for this year's Harvester Homecoming: He intends to put several trucks in the plant, stage a few offices - including Hilsmeier's - and run tours through the plant during the event.
Other plans for this year's Homecoming include a special section for the Transtar Eagle - "I don't want people to think this is just a Scout show," he said - and a display and presentation on the various diesel-powered light truck prototypes that IH built. He's also invited a number of former IH designers to the show, among them Hatch; David Allendorf, chief designer of the Lonestar; and Chris Ito, the current head of Navistar design.
Navistar has, DuVall noted, increased its support of the Homecoming this year, committing to bringing down a number of trucks from its historical collection and to displaying trucks from that collection in the museum when that is ready to open.
"I've learned so much in the last year, and I'm not taking it for granted," DuVall said.
This year's Harvester Homecoming will take place July 31 to August 2. For more information, visit HarvesterHomecoming.com.
SOURCE: HEMMINGS