Placerville
Placerville | ||
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Nickname : Hangtown | ||
Placerville Courthouse |
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Location of Placerville, California | ||
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Basic data | ||
Foundation : | May 13, 1854 | |
State : | United States | |
State : | California | |
County : | El Dorado County | |
Coordinates : | 38 ° 44 ′ N , 120 ° 48 ′ W | |
Time zone : | Pacific ( UTC − 8 / −7 ) | |
Residents : | 9,610 (as of: 2000) | |
Population density : | 640.7 inhabitants per km 2 | |
Area : | 15.0 km 2 (approx. 6 mi 2 ) of which 15.0 km 2 (approx. 6 mi 2 ) are land |
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Height : | 570 m | |
Postal code : | 95667 | |
Area code : | +1 530 | |
FIPS : | 06-57540 | |
GNIS ID : | 0277577 | |
Website : | www.ci.placerville.ca.us | |
Mayor : | Carl Hagen |
Placerville is a city (City) and seat of the county administration ( County Seat ) in the valley of the southern arm of the American River in El Dorado County in the north of the US state California , United States , with 10,200 inhabitants (as of 2004 ).
The name of the place comes from the English word placer for deposit , especially of gold . The California gold rush began in January 1848 at Sutter's Mill in nearby Coloma . Placerville quickly became the hub of the gold business and hopeful prospectors. Levi Strauss lived briefly in the city and sold canvas for tents before he moved to San Francisco and founded Levi Strauss & Co. , which patented the jeans in 1873 .
In 1857 the seat of El Dorado County, also named after the gold rush, was moved from Coloma to Placerville. Southern Pacific Railroad operated a railway line from Sacramento , the capital of California, to Placerville until 1980 . The place was also on the route of the legendary Pony Express from St. Louis to Sacramento.
The place was originally called Dry Diggins , after the extraction of dry sands that were carried down to the river and washed away there. A later nickname, Hangtown, comes from the many executions during the troubled weddings of the gold rush. Several historic buildings remain in the Placerville cityscape, including a clock tower on Main Street . The Hangtown's Gold Bug Park & Mine is a museum and mine for gold mining by mining manner.
National Register of Historic Places
Several structures in Placerville have been added to the National Register of Historic Places over time, including the John Pearson Soda Works and Fountain-Tallman Soda Works , Combellack-Blair House , Confidence Hall, and the Church of Our Savior .
sons and daughters of the town
- James Blair (1909-1992), rower
- John Thomas Dunlop (1914-2003), politician
- Ava Vincent (* 1975), porn actress
Web links
- Hangtown's Gold Bug Park & Mine
- El Dorado County Visitor Authority: Placerville - History