When Studebaker bent nature to its will

The more advertising we see, the more we get used to tuning it out, the harder companies have to work to get our attention.

Car companies are, of course, no exception. Whether it's BMW producing star studded action movies or prestige German brands getting into an argument via billboard, ads keep on getting bigger and harder to ignore.

But weirdly enough, one of the biggest car ads of all time predated almost all of these, and it was done by Studebaker, a company that hasn't made a new car since 1966. The advertisement is the Studebaker tree sign in the United States and this year will mark its 80th birthday.

Bendix Woods County Park was developed as a proving ground for Studebaker in 1926. (image: Wiki Commons)

The site is located in Bendix Woods County Park in the state of Indiana and was developed by Studebaker in 1926 as a test track.

The test track used natural features of the environment to simulate all kinds of terrains and conditions. Check out this promotional video from the '60s showing testing in progress:

The whole point of that film seems to be to show Studebaker's dominance over nature, and as if to further illustrate that point they created an entire damn forest that doubled as a sign visible not only from the air, but space even.

The sign, spelling 'STUDEBAKER' in all caps, like it was designed by a shouty druid, was made up of roughly 8000 pine trees. There's also a walking track through the trees themselves.

This is the view of the sign from inside the 'D'. (image: Wiki Commons)

The tree sign has the honour of being one of the world's largest living advertisements and still stands today, despite being damaged by storms and disease. Between 2013 and 2015 a restoration project was undertaken to remove any diseased trees and plant saplings to keep the sign alive.

You can even jump on Google maps and check it out from satellite, as well as dropping into Street View and taking a digital wander through the woods.

Street View even lets you get close enough to read the sign! Well, sort of. (image: Google Maps)

The site was also home to the Studebaker Clubhouse, a building for the proving ground employees to eat, board and chill out after hours.

The site itself is about a three-hour drive from Indianapolis. So, if you're ever in town for the Indianapolis 500 (as you do) and fancy exploring a little bit of motoring history, you should go check it out.

If you can't make it to the US to see the tree sign for yourself, we've got our own version here in Australia. Well, sort of... in the Adelaide Hills, where a dude spent years writing 'Jesus Lives' in trees underneath a flightpath. And to think I would have just written swear words.

What would you write in trees you can see from space? Let us know in the comments below.