The 405 Aired May 4th, 2026
I wanna again welcome you to The 405 Coffee Break. Pull down your cap. It's windy out there. Get your cup of coffee, glass iced tea, or bottled water. Let's see what's happening.
OK Solberg:Spring wheat above the $6 mark, $6.24 a bushel before dockage. A bred cow down in Billings on Wednesday sold for $4,375. Bred cow, top end. Holy smokes. A 100lb fat lamb in Billings at $2.94 a pound, but guys, there's more, much more.
OK Solberg:It's Monday, and that means it's Jay and Joe's Motor Monday, the day we look at horsepower one Monday at a time. Now I had a listener ask, what about Studebaker? When are you gonna talk about Studebaker? To them, I answer, today's the day. And that right after our bible verse.
OK Solberg:Psalm 103:15-16 As for a man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field. For the wind passes over it and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. Psalm 103 verses fifteen and sixteen.
OK Solberg:The wind passes over it and it is gone. That's just like the Studebaker. Listen. Today in the year 2026, it's get easy to get sidetracked with a thousand different things to read or a thousand different things to do. History, well, it still fascinates us to a certain degree, but ask the average person today.
OK Solberg:Ask the average person, what do you know about South Bend, Indiana? And you might get a blank stare. Some may say, well, you know, I think the University of Notre Dame is there. A few others might say, well, I know it's South Of Kalamazoo and right in between Chicago and Detroit. But most would look perplexed and simply say, don't know much about South Bend, Indiana.
OK Solberg:Yet, yet ask a family whose roots run deep in that soil and you may get something else entirely, a look, a pause, and then a glare. What? Have you never heard of Studebaker? Well, there was a time when the sound of America was not the of an engine, but the creek of wood and a rhythm of iron on dirt. And if you listen closely, you might hear a name carried on the wind, Studebaker.
OK Solberg:It began not with speed, but with fire. In 1852, in that very town of South Bend, two brothers, Henry and Clement Studebaker, set up a blacksmith shop. Not much to look at, just a forge, a fire, a hammer, and a belief that if you built something right, people would come back. And they did. Wagons, strong wagons, reliable wagons, the kind a man trusted when everything he owned sat in the back and the road ahead, well, it had no map.
OK Solberg:Then came a nation divided. This is American Civil War. Armies moved not just on courage but on wheels. And those wheels, more often than not, bore the mark Studebaker. They supplied wagons to the Union Army, sturdy enough for a cannon, steady enough for supplies, dependable enough for war.
OK Solberg:And when the war was over, the country still needed moving westward hoe, always westward, families packed their lives into those same wagons heading towards promise or at least the possibility of it. And somewhere along those dusty trails, that name became became more than a brand. It became a reputation. By the late 1800's Studebaker was the largest wagon maker in the world. Now listen to this.
OK Solberg:That modest beginning in South Bend had grown into a sprawling factory complex covering acres of ground, employing at its height, listen, over 20,000 men and women. One company, one name feeding thousands of families.
OK Solberg:Oh, yes. Whistles would blow, shifts change, and they would pour into the streets, lunch pails swinging, a city moving to the rhythm of a factory clock. And while there were plants in Detroit and later in Hamilton, Ontario, South Bend, well, that was the heart, the pulse of Studebaker, the place where iron met imagination.
OK Solberg:Now here's where the story takes a turn. Because while others were perfecting the horse drawn carriage, Studebaker began to imagine. Maybe imagine a world without one. In 1902 they built an electric car. Ahead of their time, listen closely, they built an electric car in 1902.
OK Solberg:Quiet, clean, almost ghost like. And then, well, along comes gasoline. By 1904 Studebaker stepped fully into the automotive age, not as a follower, but as one of the early arrivals. And for a time, they thrived through the twenties. The name Studebaker meant innovation, craftsmanship, and just a touch of elegance.
OK Solberg:But history has a way of testing even the strongest names. The Great Depression came, and with it, hardship, extreme hardship. In 1933, Studebaker declared bankruptcy. Its president, guys, a man who poured himself into the company could not bear the weight of its collapse. Sadly, he took his own life.
OK Solberg:But Studebaker did not stay down. They climbed back. Through ingenuity, through determination, they continued. During World War two, they turned again to service to service of building trucks for the military, engines for aircrafts, once more helping move a nation at war. And then the 1950's Studebaker became bold, stylish, daring, cars cars that turned heads and may made people look twice.
OK Solberg:They were offer often ahead of their time, but being ahead is not always the same as being able to sustain yourself because while Studebaker intubated, the giants of Detroit mass produced and slowly, steadily, the gap widened In 1963, take your hats off, the factory in South Bend fell silent.
OK Solberg:Over 7,000 workers suddenly without work, 7,000 jobs gone. A city, once alive with the sound of industry, felt the stillness 3 years later. Can you hear taps blowing in the background? In 1966, the last Studebaker automobile rolled off the line in Canada, and just like that, an era came to an end.
OK Solberg:And just like that, it was gone. What did the bible verse say? The wind passes over it and it is gone. Studebaker, gone but not forgotten. And now you know the best of the story.
OK Solberg:And many of us right here at Malta, Montana can remember Studebaker cars driving right up the Central Avenue in Malta, Montana.
OK Solberg:So until next time, as you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.