by Royce Radcliffe

Created on: April 11, 2007   Last Updated: April 23, 2007

The Studebaker wagon was the flagship car of the Studebaker corporation. This company is one of the most interesting in the industry for a variety of reasons, and most automotive history lovers who think of the wagon think not of its design but the story of its maker.

This company actually started making versions of its car in 1852! Of course, not as cars, but as literal wagons. It produced wagons for settlers and people traveling west and was very profitable. They started their business in early 1852 and continued without even getting incorporated until 1868, when they did so under the name of the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company. This name would last for nearly a hundred years.

This company actually did something revolutionary in the early 1900s. The transition from a wagon maker to automobile manufacturer had never before been accomplished. The automotive industry crushed the wagon industry and they were the only company to make the transition. But more than that, they already had interests in renewable energy! When you hear of Ford and other companies just now coming out with workable electric models, just know that Studebaker Corporation tried it in 1902 and put a lot of its resources into the effort. But with the limited technology available at the time, it failed.

Facing a potential bankruptcy they moved into gas-powered automobile manufacturing a few years later. It actually was in such bad shape that it had to borrow resources and team with other manufacturers to gets its cars made. But after building up resources for the next ten years or so, it came out with its own car in 1913. The company continued to create its "wagons" (precursor to the modern day station wagon and SUV) until it ran out of steam in 1966. True to form, the company re-imagined itself once again and continues to survive to this day as an independent investment firm called the Studebaker-Worthington Corporation.

This company has been through more changes than Missouri weather. It could teach a chameleon a thing or two about surviving. Its wagon was a modest vehicle that reminds on of a stripped down and smaller version of the SUVs we have owning the road today. It was a new perspective on the road, just like its company provided a new perspective on how to survive in radically changing times. And for that, both are remembered.

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