Television's 'American Pickers' visit Kern County collector

23ABC News

Bakersfield resident Marc McCaslin has been collecting rare treasures from Kern County and California history since his elementary school days. His collection, including a prop truck that showed up in Captain America: The First Avenger, has caught the attention of Wolfe and "Jersey" Jon Szalay, who brought the History Channel's 'American Pickers' to Kern County to check it out. 23ABC's Dominique LaVigne visited McCaslin to see his collection and find out more.

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:01 - If you're a collector, you may be familiar

00:03 with the History Channel show, American Pickers.

00:06 23 ABC's Dominique Lavigne met with one local collector

00:10 featured on the program to get to the bottom

00:12 of how his collection began.

00:15 - What might look like just another truck in a garage

00:17 is actually a prop vehicle from Captain America,

00:20 the first Avenger.

00:21 And this isn't the only collector's item in this garage,

00:24 piquing the interest of Mike Wolfe and Jersey John,

00:27 bringing them right here to Kern County.

00:29 - It was kind of an interesting day.

00:31 They came out to use the property, only for backdrops.

00:36 So when Mike and Jersey John started looking around,

00:39 they kind of looked at each other and said,

00:41 "Why aren't we filming this for an episode?"

00:43 And they looked at me and said,

00:44 "Hey, let's do an episode."

00:45 I wasn't gonna say no.

00:46 - Mark McCaslin says he began collecting

00:48 in elementary school, crediting his fascination

00:50 with local history and his desire

00:52 to keep that history alive.

00:54 - It's actually funny, yeah.

00:56 Everything has a story.

00:57 I remember where everything came from, how I got it.

01:01 - McCaslin recalls driving the truck used

01:03 in Captain America, the first Avenger,

01:04 down the grapevine 45 miles per hour

01:07 from Santa Clarita back to Bakersfield.

01:09 He says only three trucks were made for the film,

01:11 but two were repainted, making this one a rare find.

01:14 - This is the only one left in the world.

01:16 And so even the guys on American Pickers

01:19 were really, really excited to see this.

01:21 - He reached out to American Pickers four years ago

01:24 to feature his collection in their show.

01:26 And in January, they came out to film,

01:28 spending more than six hours looking at every item

01:30 in his collection and choosing which items to buy.

01:33 - They always love porcelain signs.

01:35 So this one right here, Preston Tyre's sign,

01:37 I got from the owner and I wanna be the caretaker.

01:40 They wanted to buy it, but it's local history

01:42 and I just couldn't let it go.

01:44 - He says he deals with challenges making ends meet

01:46 as a small family farmer, adding selling some

01:48 of his collectibles eases the burden.

01:50 But he says there are just some things

01:51 he can't part ways with.

01:52 - That local history for me has to stay local.

01:56 If it gets sold and shipped off to another state,

01:58 it gets lost.

02:00 So I really wanna keep local history here in Kern County.

02:04 - McCaslin says he plans to continue collecting

02:06 and you can catch his episode on American Pickers

02:08 on the History Channel on August 2nd.

02:10 In Bakersfield, I'm Dominique Lavignier,

02:12 23 ABC News, connecting you.

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