PHOTOS: It's always special, but there was something extra special about Monday's Fourth of July Parade in Weaverville: it starred a purple fire engine with a colorful history.
And not just any purple fire engine: a 1922 Stutz Model is 100 years old. It was bought in San Francisco that year by the Redding Fire Department and, legend has it, it stopped in Willows to fight a fire on the way to Shasta County where it immediately fought a fire in Redding.
It was eventually sold to the Weaverville Fire Department.
The Clampers (E Clampus Vitus Trinitarianus Chapter 62) bought it in 1963, painted it purple for unknown reasons and it's been the chapter's "mascot" ever since. So who, or what, is this group?
“Clampers started out in the mining days, back in 1849—1850s, and they were, pretty much, the guys that couldn’t get into the other clubs, you know, the more affluent clubs. So they’re kind of a renegade group," explained Past Noble Grand Humbug, Bob Simmons.