THE TINY, BUT PROUD, TOWN OF CASSELTON, NORTH DAKOTA (Population 1,800), is the home of the Cass County Summerfest, a local fair of some prominence that just gained some more stature on Saturday.

The Summerfest is also the venue for one of the state’s largest fire truck parades and this year the organizers decided to go for a record.  According to the Guinness Book of (millions of) Records, the largest firetruck parade ever held was in Switzerland in 2006 when 159 firetrucks of all kinds paraded.

So the word went out …. send us your fire engines, trucks, squads  – modern and antique.  We’re going for the record this year.  And entries from all over the Dakotas and Minnesota came rolling in.  Firefighters wanted their trucks to be in the record-setter.  But with just five days to go, they were two entrants short of the minimum.  And there’s always the probablility that one or two won’t show up for one reason or another.

The urgent call for HELP was broadcast and the friends of Casselton came through.  25 new entries came in during the last 24 hours.  When the parade stepped off, the judges were ready, taking photos of both sides of each truck as they rolled along the route.  On Monday all the photos along with the certified entry blanks will be sent in to the Guinness folks and Casselton should be proclaimed the new King of the Firetruck Parade Hill with 181 fire trucks.