Old Junkyard Used to be Home to a Massive Hoard of Studebakers, They Were All Crushed

All told, I get all excited when I stumble across Studebaker survivors on the Interwebz. If you're also a fan of the company founded by the Studebaker brothers in the 1800s, the videos below will take you on an emotional roller coaster. The good news is that you'll see what might have been the largest hoard of Studebakers in a junkyard. The bad news is that almost all of them got crushed.

There's no backstory as to how so many Studebakers were gathered in one place, but it's safe to assume that the previous owner of this junkyard had a thing for the brand. He probably hoarded so many of them hoping that he would start some sort of business selling parts. Things likely didn't go as planned so all these cars were left to rot away.

Unfortunately, these classic beauties spent a few good decades completely exposed to the elements, so most of them were beyond salvageable. And that makes me sad because this "collection" used to include quite a few appealing models from the 1940s to the 1960s.

The old junkyard was home to a large number of Lark compacts, but it also included several Champions, Commanders, and even President sedans. And I'm sure I spotted at least a couple of rare Wagonaires in one of the videos below.

You'll also see the remains of several light-duty pickup trucks, including the long-lived E-Series (1949-1960) and its successor, the Champ. Oh, the latter was also among Studebaker's innovative nameplates.

The Champ introduced the sliding rear window, which caught on among the major truck makers, and was the first pickup to offer car-like comfort through a cab based on a sedan body. Finally, toward the end of its life cycle, the Champ became the first American truck to offer service bodies constructed of fiberglass.

Anyway, this junkyard had to be cleaned up and closed, so most of the vehicles parked on the property had to be crushed and hauled away. And it was all documented on video. The first footage you'll see below is a tour of the junkyard. The second one shows the cars being prepared for the crusher. The third video, and perhaps the saddest, documents the crushing of more than 100 vehicles, most of which were Studebakers.

But the guy who recorded the crushing claims he "saved as much as he could." And all can do is hope that some of the parts will find their way onto other Studebakers that are waiting to be restored. It's the best thing that could happen given that all of the cars that were loaded into the crusher were too damaged to get a second chance.