The Washington times., 1901-09-29
THE CITY OF HANGTOVN
How a California Community Se-
cured Strange Name.
Mining Residents of P1acerviIle
Strung Up the Bad Men Who Made
Trouble-Many Stories About the
Appropriate Title Given the Camp.

Hidden in the fir-clad hills and ravInes
of FL Dorado county. at the base of the
first grand rise of the Sierras, there Is a
little town. Handicapped hills wall 1t
securely in. as if protecting it from the
| outside world, and up over them and
across the dark green sea of tree tops.
through the clear mountain air, the white
crested Sierras raise their rugged heights
Placerville, they call IL. Erstwhile min
ing camp, and formerly of great import
ance as town, 1t now leads the quiet
existence of the governmental seat of a
| mountain county, which has been left a
| trifie to one siCe by the exhaustion of its
| gold deposits and the demands of COM
mercial life. 1t gives no indications to-
day of the prominence which once was
its own. and Of the strenuous life" 1t
led once as mining camp. There Is now
| little about 1t that would attract the at
tention of the uninformed stranger to its
previous history or suggest to him any,
thing of the days when the place was the
third largest town in California. II Is
| charmingly picturesque, with it's irreg-
ular streets following the contour of the
/! land and lending 1t quiet air of un-
| conventionality and convenience that is
not soon forgotten.
Though the place is not widely known
as 'Placerville," there are few people in
this country today who have not at least
heard OF it as "Hangtown." Certainly
there are none in California to whom the
name is unfamiliar. There is not one of
these, however. who without previous in
formation would recognize In the Placer
Vile of today the Hangtown OF fifty years
ago. To most people the mention of the
name brings memories. either personal or
otherwise, of the most romantic period of
Western history. when the men of the
East sought their fortunes in "El Dorado
of 40. There was a time when Placer
Vile was mass of board and cloth
houses, and when .Emigrant Ravine
Road was constantly filed with the
teams of incoming pioneers and freight
ers; when ''Shirt-taH Bend" now desert
ed, was busy mining centre: when gold
could be easily taken from Mother Earth
and fortunes made In a day were often
squandered In an hour; when Judge
Lynch's court was the highest legal tri-
bunal, and before that bar swift and sure
justice was meted out to public offenders
To those who saw this fourishing camp
in its early days. wild and careless OF its
future. there will always come a memory,
when Placerville is mentioned. OF those
times when money was plenty. the excite
ment of the gold fever was raging, and
old "Hangtown" was in its prime.
The name is probably one of the most |
famous Of all those words which, coined !
and applied as nicknames, have become |
an interesting part of our Western geog- |
raphy. 1t has been used for effect on |
'tenderfeet." and would-be portrayers of |
Western life have made 1t part of their |
stock in trade as sounding typ
ically and lawlessly Western 1t Is per-
haps cruel to disillus.onize those people
who have a more or less hazy idea of old
Hangtown as the scene OF daily murders
and bioodshed and all other immoralities
which are attributed to the ultra mining |
camp. The place was, of course, not a |
model In those respects. and came by its
name honestly enough. But it was no
worse than any other camp of any i'm
portance at that time. Perhaps the repu-
tation which its name gained for It had
something to do with the fact that no
number of crimes occurred
there. Nevertheless the fact remains
that few were committed early in the
history Of the town. and that these and
others were speedily punished, and to this
fact is attributed the origin of the most
unique, as well as one of the most ia
nous. Of our Western names.
There have been, of course, many theo-
Hes as to the origin of the name Hang
.own." as is perfectly natural in the
,ase of unwrittcn history such as this,
1ut there are three stories, more or less
authentic, which purport to contain the
rue history of how 1t happened They all
sound reasonable. and It is probable that
Ill three are founded on the same fact
rhe camp originated in 1s4s as ''Old Dry
oiggings." and by this name 1t was
'nown until January, 1S49 and according
o the first story. in that month the event
occurred which informally christened the
lace "Hangtown."
One night three men were playing poker
n saloon, probably a tent or hut. when
me of the party went broke" That I'm
tself was probably not extraordinary. but
What followed was enough out of the COM
non to affect the little camp to no slight ]
egree. The proprietor of the place had
allen asleep in the room, and as it was
nown that he had some dust in his pos '
ession. It occurred to the gentleman who '
ad lost that glorious opportunity of re- I
purses was at hand. Needless T
D say, the proposition found favor In the I
yes of tse others. The sleeper was c
reused and requested over a gunbarrei I
D "ante! A favor asked in such terms '
Tas not to be refused. and he responded G
nth alacrity. The accompanying threats (
f sure death, II he blew were disre- t
arded by the victim, however, and he Ii
blew" as promptly as he had "anted" on y
ne previous evening. The camp was wild I
nd wanted justice done No time was I
asted, and the robbers were arrested be- I
)re they had time to escape a court was e
onvened, and hogging and exile were v
hosen as a sentence in keeping with the fl
lOrmity of the crime. a
The promptness with which the whole W
rocedure was gone through with might p
ave served warning to wiser men. p
ut this was not the case with our gam s.
er-robbers. Next day they appeared in I.
imp very drunk and very noisy, vowing h
ire vengeance on their punishers Such b
rrogance and insolence was too much to 81
SIX any respectable forty y-niner to stand. el
nd at mass meeting of righteously in b.
gnant miners. hastily convened, the de- e;
sion to hang the men was made This o
ntence was carried out promptly as 81
lie previous one. The crowd marched o.
OWN the street to a big oak tree. and b
ere, with a dozen husky pioneers at the .
ng end of each rope the bad men met 81
eir fate. Thereafter the miners said
iangtown" when they referred to the 81
tie Sierra camp. la
Then there is another story which diff g
RS from the preceding one in the roman W
; detail that the crime is laid at the W
or of an organized gang of desperadoes, W
veral of which infested the country al
he bands are said to have been of the ii
nuine dime novel variety with grips, te
snS, and passwords. 1t is quite possible ST