Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Placerville, CA

Placerville is the county seat of El Dorado County and one of California's best-preserved Gold Rush towns, sitting on U.S. Route 50 where it crosses State Route 49 in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

Placerville sprang up after James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in nearby Coloma in January 1848, and the camp was first called Dry Diggins because miners had to cart dry soil down to running water to wash out the gold.

In 1849 the town earned its enduring nickname 'Hangtown' after a series of hangings from a great white oak — the stump of that tree still lies in the cellar of a Main Street bar aptly named The Hangman's Tree.

Placerville was incorporated on May 13, 1854, taking its name from the local placer gold deposits, and at incorporation it was the third largest town in all of California, behind only San Francisco and Sacramento.

In 1857 the El Dorado County seat was moved from Coloma to Placerville, where it remains today, and the city area is registered as California Historical Landmark No. 701.

Placerville actually voted itself out of existence once — the city disbanded in 1873 after a dispute with the railroad and did not reincorporate until 1900.

Main Street's Placerville Hardware has operated continuously since 1852 and is considered the oldest hardware store west of the Mississippi River; its old wooden counters still carry slots carved to accept gold dust as payment.

Placerville's hard-rock mining past is on display at Gold Bug Park & Mine, a city-run mine and museum, and at the Fountain & Tallman Museum, housed in an 1852 soda works building on Main Street.

Placerville's logo featured a hangman's noose in tribute to its Hangtown past until 2021, when the city council voted to remove it.

Placerville's population was 10,747 at the 2020 census, almost unchanged from its Gold Rush-era scale, and it has about 4,775 households averaging just 2.12 people each.