Continuing with stories about the famous hanging that changed the name of Placerville, then Old Dry Diggings, to Hangtown, we now look at two versions of the story provided by one of Placerville’s most thorough historians, Marilyn Ferguson. Her version,…
Category: Gold Country History
Why Did They Call It Hangtown? – Part 4
Last time we looked at the famous hanging that changed the name of Placerville, then Old Dry Diggings, to Hangtown, as it was written by Edward Gould Buffum in his book, “Six months in the gold mines: from a journal…
Why Did They Call It Hangtown? – Part 3
As a part of the look at the various stories about the famous hanging that changed the name of Placerville, then Old Dry Diggings, to Hangtown, Edward Gould Buffum’s first-person account is one of the most important. In Chapter VI…
Why Did They Call It Hangtown? – Part 2
In Part 1 we looked at one version of the story that described the event that gave Placerville, then known as “Old Dry Diggins,” the name “Hangtown.” In Part 2 we continue with two other versions of the story from…