Highlighting Idaho - Meet Placerville

Meet Placerville

Where: Boise County

Elevation: 4,324 feet

Population: 61 (2003)

Namesake: Placerville was named for the placer mining that took place beginning in the 1860's. I have no clue what placer is! Back in 1863, when the town was "booming", there were approximately 5,000 residents.

Placerville is a very (very) small town in the way to our family's cabin. It's actually quite OUT of the way, up a very steep, very narrow dirt road......clear on top of a mountain. My dad and I drove there once and scouted out the place......which is one square mile, mind you. Our tour didn't really last long, until we got to the cemetary. I think we were there for hours. And these pictures aren't pictures I have taken. Though, I HAVE taken pictures there - I have no clue where they ended up after all these years. This cemetary is ancient. There are iron creations all over - including an iron baby carriage where an infant was buried. This image is burned into my brain and I wish I knew where the picture of this was because it moved me, and I was probably only about 14 years old when I saw it. The graves are very old - dating back to the 1700s for various (early) deaths, including the plague. It's a very haunting cemetary in my opinion - situated in the mountains, in a (nearly) deserted town. The huge pine trees blow and it makes you wonder what life was like back when these folks were alive.

Inside the cemetary are the graves of the three fiddlers.......the story goes that these three men made a living by providing musical entertainment at various mining camps. In Placerville, however, their luck ran out (dun, dun, DUN). (I love old stories like this!!) Actually there were only two musicians, Fred Cursons and L. Moulton, and the third man was a miner carrying a considerable amount of gold dust. The miner, George Wilson, was the intended victim of the robbery while the musicians were killed only to ensure the silence. The three were killed in 1865. One man was arrested for the brutal slayings, but a jury found him not-guilty and the true killer was never found.