Story by Jon Stalnaker AKA The Studebaker Dude
The Super Bowl will be upon us in the near future and the talk leading up to that event are the commercials. Arguably the most popular commercials are the Budweiser ones with the Clydesdales pulling the Budweiser Beer Wagon and the adorable dalmatian dog that rides front and center on the spring seat. The Clydesdales and the Dalmatian get most of the attention but I want to give a shout out to the beautiful red beer wagon. I made a comment about it being built by Studebaker and Micah challenged me to write a story about it as he was unaware of that little tidbit of history, although I am sure he was not surprised that I knew it. (Editor’s note: not surprised at all.)
I’m not just a guy who has a couple of Studebaker vehicles; I do call myself “The Studebaker Dude” (self-proclaimed) for good reason. I have immersed myself in the Studebaker world by joining the Studebaker Drivers Club (SDC). I studied and researched Studebaker history when I was given the task to teach the Studebaker segment of the docent training class for the California Auto Museum. I also got active in the SDC club as a newsletter editor, a judge of chapter newsletters from all over the world, and even as a Director of the Pacific Southwest Zone. It’s not just a hobby for me.
While I know a lot about Studebakers, I don’t claim to know everything. But I know where to look for facts and I know which sources I should be able to trust to give me correct answers. I insert the words “should be able to” trust for good reason. I spent a couple of hours on the internet trying to get some numbers and dates about how many beer wagons Studebaker built for Budweiser but I noticed some discrepancies depending on who wrote the data. My biggest surprise was that a long-believed “fact” that the Lincoln Presidential carriage used to take Abraham Lincoln to the Ford Theater on that fateful day was built by Studebaker. Even many Studebaker guys get this one wrong. Studebaker bought that carriage and displayed it in their museum, but they did not build it. But the non-truth was posted as fact on the Smithsonian website. You would think you could trust that one.
There is a plethora of misinformation on Google and AI, in all its algorithmic glory, searches the internet to gather their responses and I find that information way too full of the kind of nonsense that permeates Facebook and all the other platforms that allow anybody to say anything with authority. I’ve already written about this a couple of times, so I will stop there.
Studebaker started building horse-drawn transportation back in 1852. ten years later they built wagons, caissons, and other war equipment for WW1. In 1872, they proclaimed themselves “the largest vehicle builder in the world”. That same year they almost lost everything in a huge fire but quickly rebuilt their factory. In 1888, President Benjamin Harris placed an order to fully stock the White House with Studebaker equipment. In 1902 Studebaker expanded their vehicle building to include electric motor cars, and 2 years later, gasoline cars. They continued to build wagons and such until 1920 when they sold that business to someone else. It was in 1902 or perhaps a little earlier that Budweiser had Studebaker build their first beer wagon.
What I have learned from the coachmen who drive the wagons, and from touring the Budweiser factory in St. Louis, is that, while Studebaker did in fact build wagons for them, not all of their current fleet of wagons are Studebaker built. I could not find a definitive number of the wagons that were Studebakers but I saw that some of them were as I toured the plant in St Louis, I got a picture of one of them that was displayed as a Studebaker. I got so frustrated with the non-facts I found on the internet, that I just stopped looking at it. Anyway, Studebaker did build them and probably all of them in the beginning. They were known as quality manufacturers, but obviously not all of them because they were no longer involved in horse-drawn vehicles after 1920. Probably, nobody even cares about this hot tid-bit but us Studebaker guys. Just imagine how it must be for a guy like me whose head is full of this kind of knowledge. The sad thing to me is that I can imagine a day in the future when all of us old guys are gone and nobody cares about Studebaker anymore.
