I recently stumbled upon this group, now a California Curiosity of mine, while deep in a Wikipedia-hole.

Origins

E Clampus Vitus (ECV) is a fraternal organization dating back to the Gold Rush days in California. It was founded in 1852 to preserve the history and heritage of the American West and to support the families of gold miners. The group faded after the American Civil War but was revived in the 1930s.

Funny Guys

The “Clampers”, as they called themselves, did not take themselves too seriously. Everyone, especially hard-working gold miners, needed a bit of levity.

The original purpose of the order appears to have been to initiate new members. When a stranger came to town, Clampers would inform him that to do business in the town it was essential to join the local secret society. The initiation rite was a parody of Freemasonic, Oddfellow and other orders, and took many forms, including rowing the initiate down in a wheelbarrow, hoisting him into the air and leaving him there, or dropping him into a vat of water. Afterwards, the initiate had to buy the other members a round of drinks.

Source: Wikipedia

This gaiety is reflected in their name and their motto. The name “E Clampus Vitus” is in Dog Latin (words made to sound Latin) and doesn’t mean anything.

Credo Quia Absurdum

ECV motto – “I believe it because it is absurd”

In the 1930s an internal ECV practical joke went awry and became a full-on accidental public hoax. ECV members produced a fake brass plate which resembled one supposedly left by Sir Francis Drake when his expedition left California in 1579. The joke continued, out of control in the public, for 40 years until the plate was conclusively proved to be a fake.

ECV Today

The order seems to remain active today. There is an annual large ECV camp-out at various historical points of interest. The flyer for the 2019 event, called “TRASH TREK XLVI”, reads:

Chief Litterbug and TRASH Leader Gary “Big Hands” Bancroft invites all worthy

NOBLE GRAND HUMBUGS AND EX-HUMBUGS
to join him and his Roisterous TRASHmen for a once in a lifetime opportunity to explore the San Diego County portion of the
2,700-mile Butterfield Overland Mail Route between Saint Louis and Memphis in the east and San Francisco in the west.

Source: http://www.ecvinc.org

T.R.A.S.H.

ECV supports creating/updating landmarks at historical points of interest “to commemorate sites, people and events that played a role in our western heritage but might otherwise be lost or forgotten” (ECV Chapter #58).

The landmark program, along with their group outings are known as “Transierra Roisterous Alliances of Senior Humbugs” or T.R.A.S.H. I look forward to finding such T.R.A.S.H. as I visit such historical locales in California and across the West.

The historical T.R.A.S.H. marker below is from where the first wagon train (the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy party) crossed the Sierra Nevada mountains in 1844.

For more history of ECV: see the ECV Chapter #58 website