Placerville, California

El Dorado County

06-57540

Placerville is a city (city ) and the county seat ( county seat ) in the valley of the southern branches of the American River in El Dorado County in the northern part of the U.S. state of California, United States, with 10,200 inhabitants ( 2004).

The town's name comes from the English word for placer deposits, especially gold. The California gold rush began in January 1848 at Sutter 's Mill at the nearby Coloma. Placerville quickly became the hub of the business with the gold and hopeful prospectors. Levi Strauss lived briefly in the city and sold canvas for tents, before he moved to San Francisco and founded the Levi Strauss & Co., which had in 1873 a patent for the jeans.

1857 the seat of the so named also after the gold rush El Dorado County of Coloma was moved to Placerville. Southern Pacific Railroad ran until 1980, a railway line from Sacramento, the capital of California to Placerville. The place was also due to the route of the legendary Pony Express from St. Louis to Sacramento.

The place was originally called Dry Diggins, after degradation of dry sands that were transported down to the river and washed out there. A later nickname Hangtown comes from the many executions in the troubled weddings of the gold rush. The cityscape of Placerville some historic buildings have been preserved, including a clock tower on Main Street. The Hangtown 's Gold Bug Park & Mine is a museum and tourist mine for gold mining by mining fashion.

National Register of Historic Places

Several buildings in Placerville were recorded over time in the National Register of Historic Places, including the building of the John Pearson Soda Works and Fountain - Tallman Soda Works, the Combellack - Blair House, Confidence Hall and the Church of Our Saviour.