Golden Days of Placerville

Approximately forty-five miles east of Sacramento, California, is the friendly town of Placerville, which marks a major “Gold Rush” historical landmark in the United States. In the early days of this small gold mining boomtown, Placerville was known as “Hangtown.” If you come into town, you will see the sign of Placerville, and underneath it you will see its nickname reading, “Old Hangtown.” Nooses can be seen all over town, on police cars, on historical landmark signs – even at the firehouse and on the Placerville City Seal. Placerville has a great deal of history behind its name. Many people who pass through the town, or even those that live there, don’t realize the history behind the town.

There are different accounts on how Placerville attained the name of Hangtown, but the most famous is an episode that occurred one January night in 1849. A gambler named Lopez hit it rich at a local saloon. After he retired for the evening, several robbers tried to overpower him. Lopez fought back like a tiger, and with the help of others, the robbers were captured and beaten like piñatas. Three of the robbers had been wanted for previous robberies, as well as for murder at a gold camp on the Stanislaus River. A thirty-minute trial was held for the robbers and after a unanimous “guilty” verdict, the crowd called out, “Hang 'em! Hang 'em!”

The most historic location in Placerville is the 147-year-old Hangman’s Tree Saloon. On the outside wall of the building is a weathered dummy in jeans, cowboy boots, and pink flannel shirt that dangles lifelessly from a wood block. Inside the saloon, where a noose swings on a fake tree, it is said that the hangman’s ghost lingers there. What used to be Elstner’s Hay Yard is where the original tree used to stand, from which the people originally hung. The dummy still hangs from that same location to this day.

Actually, Hangtown conducted only a small number of hangings. Just one year later, in 1850, Hangtown was renamed Placerville and was named after the placer deposits of placer gold found in the river bed between Spanish Ravine and the town plaza. The town of Placerville began with the Gold Rush in California in the 1840’s. Gold was discovered in the tailrace at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, which is about ten miles from Old Hangtown, in 1848.