Placerville, California

As of the 2000 year census, Placerville’s population is 9,610 people. In 1848, the beginning of the California Gold Rush, the town now known as Placerville was called Dry Diggins. The town had the name during the gold rush because the miners would use dry soil and mix it with running water to get the gold from the soil in Placerville.

Placerville’s nickname is “0ld Hangtown” because many people were being hung there in the 1800’s. Placerville was also part of the Pony Express, were mail was delivered by men on horses instead of the railroads, airplanes, and trucks we use know.

James Marshall built a sawmill were Placerville is today, for one of his employers. On January 24, 1848, he found small flakes of gold on the tail race of the mill. When news spread of his finding the California Gold Rush began. The gold rush was also a time of murder and robbery, many people lost their gold by threat of their life. The spot in Placerville called “Old Hangmans Tree” was a big oak tree were all the robbers and murderers were hung. This is when became known as “Old Hangtown”. During 1854 Placerville was the 3rd most populated city in California, only overtaken by San Francisco and Sacramento the states capital.

There is a very unique in the middle of Placerville called Belltower, this unique tower has its own history. Placerville suffered 3 fires in 1856 which almost destroyed all of Placerville’s business section in the city. So the people of Placerville wanted an alarm in case of another fire, this is were the Belltower comes into Placerville. The people demanded a bell from England, England accepted the request. They requested the tower in 1860, it arrived in the town in 1865, the city council gave approval to put it in a tower on the plaza, it cost them $380.00. The tower was just 50-feet high, and was revealed to the people on September 8, 1898, during the city’s admission day parade.

The first toll bridge in Placerville was made by a falling tree that fell over a stream, a miner found it and camped by it and charged 4 dollars for anyone who wanted to cross, he got away with it for some time, which made the first toll bridge in Placerville.

The famous painter from Placerville is Thomas Kincaid, Thomas is known as the painter of light.

In 1855, Placerville’s postmaster had a serious problem; the mail man on contract for Placerville had disappeared. So all of Placerville’s mail had disappeared. The carrier’s partner was killed first, and his mules froze to death in the snow. They think it was the carrier’s death of his horse that tipped him over to breaking contract and running away. There was one man named John Thompson, who was and ex-miner, who did not do well in his mining, who asked the postmaster to carry mail over the Sierra Mountains. The postmaster could not hire John for the mailman was on contract with the postmaster and could not sign the contract over for he was missing.