Date and Weather Check. Saturday, August 9, 2025, Placerville Weather about 95 degrees, hot hot hot!
Placerville, California is one of those frozen in time hidden gems you come across only a few times in your lifetime. I drove from the Bay Area to Placerville with my wife and son, and even though I had reservations about going into small towns like this, my preconceived notions were all dispelled as soon as we started walking around the town and met the most loveliest of people. We first stopped off at our hotel for the night, the historic Cary House Hotel was built by William Cary in 1857 after fire destroyed his first inn, the Placer Hotel. Cary was a prominent businessman in Placerville who also served a term as mayor. We got in town at around 2:00pm while check-in time was at 3:00pm. There were no one at the front desk (this was to be the theme throughout our stay), so we called the number left at the front desk counter and eventually someone came down and told us check-in time is at 3:00pm and the room is not ready (I knew the check-in time but thought like most hotels, early check-ins are ok). No problem. We decided to go across the street to the Placerville Public House restaurant to have a late lunch and a beer after driving 2-1/2 hours from the Bay Area.
The Placerville Public House restaurant for those uninitiated sits atop the original “Hang Tree” with its history of lynching by hanging, giving birth to one of the town’s name “Hangtown” which still sticks for its shock-value marketing purposes and which also succeeded the town’s original name “Dry Diggins” (use your imagination for the reasoning behind this name, you’re probably right!) ….which also was succeeded by its eventual current name “Placerville”. And by the way, fact or legend has it, the original “Hang Tree” stump still sits under the foundations of the restaurant…let that sink in. FWIW, at the inner outside end of the restaurant hangs a fake full size man doll on a noose which adds to the town’s mystique, rough image, and undeniable history…..it’s all about fun, history and marketing, don’t hate, just appreciate! The young Irish waiter at the restaurant was very pleasant (I consider most people young these days at my age, LOL), helped me pick a beer on tap that they served even though I used to be an avid beer connoisseur before gout decided to pay me a visit and stayed uninvited, but I still indulge once in awhile knowing the consequences of gout…but I digress! The restaurant was on the larger side for the town, pleasantly relaxed atmosphere, and a lot of good oldies but goodies light rock/pop music. The waiter was nice enough to offer me the Spotify channel “Air Supply”. I had a large Greek Salad, both my wife and son had tacos of different ingredients. They were all delicious as confirmed by my family who despite my finagling, denied my lobbying for one of their tacos.
Disclaimer, I am terribly bad with names, I always forget to ask for it, and even if they told me, I would forget it as soon as they said it. But on the bright side, I am visually great for everything, I have a photographic memory, if I saw the name written, it’s in my memory banks! So what all that means is, unfortunately, most of the time, I can’t give shout outs to those who verbally told me and who deserves it. And since I am a visual person and most don’t wear name tags that I can visually put in my memory banks, shout outs are slim and far in between, my bad!
So after lunch, we crossed the street back to our hotel at the historic Cary Hotel. Still no one at the front desk, this was about 3:15pm when check-in was 3:00pm. So as I was calling the number on the counter at the front desk, the host came down and asked if we needed help. YES, since after a 2-1/2 hours drive and was denied check-in at 2:00pm and now trying again after the official 3:00pm check-in, I told her I was checking in. Long story short, room is STILL not ready!
To be fair, the young girl was very pleasant in her demeanor, and I eventually just attributed the slow actions to understaffing. My eventual observations is that she wears multiple hats, including a hat for cleaning and preparing the rooms with other cleaning staff, though I never saw any other cleaning staff nor any cleaning staff for that matter, but I’ll give her/them the benefit of the doubt. Nonetheless, we waited in the lobby for about 10 minutes until our room was ready at about 3:25pm, keep in mind check-in time was 3:00pm. Got our room, it was sparsely furnished, not going to fixate on that, old hotel, that’s the experience you paid for! FWIW, the lobby “museum” and its historical atmosphere is what we came to this hotel for, and it didn’t disappoint, albeit a relatively small lobby with its limited historical artifacts.
Onwards and upwards! 3:40pm-ish, we stepped back out onto Main Street where everything tourisy happens. Great vibes in this small town. We headed straight towards the “Fountain & Tallman Museum” which was scheduled to close at 4:00pm on this wonderfully hot hot day. Note, rest assured, at least all the places we went to had some air-conditioning. As soon as we entered the museum, we were greeted with an extremely nice lady who offered us the history of the museum and Placerville in general (note, this was the pleasant surprise throughout the day on Main Street, Placerville, CA!). At some point, she was called off for some other matter and promised to return. We didn’t want to wait, so we proceeded to climb up the upstairs to the 2nd level of the museum. No longer than a minute after we got up there to explore the wonderful historical displays, another lady came up to greet us with a wide inviting smile and provided invaluable back story on the history of both the historical significance of the displays as well as Placerville in general. FWIW, a rotary analog dial-up phone equipped with a local manually operated switchboard that we could play with on display was her introduction to us. Very nice lady who was from my neck of the woods, the Bay Area, which I soon found to be a common transplantation route – from the Bay Area to Placerville which was conferred to me by the a number of residences and merchants I came across on that day. Anyhow, her name is Beth which I remember only because I saw her name tag, remember I am a visual person, especially for names, I forget names verbally spoken to me like water running through a spigot. But visual name tags, you are cast in stone in my memory.
After the museum, we headed back towards the hotel, window shopping all along, until we reached this fascinating store named “Loved To Death”. This store had the most unadulteratedly creative artistic view on life and death with some love sprinkled in between. I’ve only been to one other store back in my area called “The Bone Room” which was actually more natural history of all kinds of animal and/or otherwise with a lot of bones tossed in between, but that store’s been closed for a number of years. And the owner of this “Loved To Death” store told me she’s also from the Bay Area, moved in just recently, and had oftentimes frequented and shopped at my local “The Bone Store” which again is no long in business there. She, like most proprietors I came across on Main Street was very receptive and cordial to outsiders like me and my family. Pay her a visit, she will get you hooked on the creativity of “morbid”-ly fun art!
Our next visit(s) were to antique shops. The “Placerville Antiques and Collectibles” and “Empire Antiques”. And before I begin, I kick myself for not taking pictures as I am not a full time critic…..I only play one online…..aka Vicks Formula 44 TV commercial slogan, “I’m not a Doctor, but I play one on TV!” LOL The Antique shop proprietors were both standout ambassadors of the town, one telling me about the back side of the store that used to be a bank vault! The other antique store proprietor had a longer story to tell about how he also migrated from the Bay Area and continued to tell me all the places in and around Placerville that an outsider like me and my family would enjoy. I stopped by his counter (he was the store owner and only one there) because he was playing a guitar to some prerecorded music and when he was done, I gave him an applause……then the historical stories about the town of Placerville and places of interest around town began that lasted longer than I thought it would, but I stuck around to listen since his hospitability deserves my hospitable return. But alas we bidded farewell as he invited me to visit again which I will.
I also met a fabulous lady on the street right outside our hotel as I was taking some photos. She was also a transplant from the Bay Area (see the theme here! LOL). She is of the artistic type and told me about how she lives on one of the apartments on Main Street and how the town has changed through the years. She told me about the homeless moving in, though I never saw any that day. She also told me how she’s recently found a new job helping the homeless by helping themselves “Dress for Success”, a very honorable profession!
An interesting side-story. On that first night as I sat in the hotel lobby around 11:00pm all by myself waiting for someone from the hotel to bring me a bucket of ice (there is no vending machines for ice, it just tells you to contact the front desk for ice), the left upper corner of the victorian couch I was sitting on started to shake and rumble like I was in a minor earthquake but only on that one upper left corner of the couch, as if someone from another world beyond wanted my attention. The couch shook for at least 10 seconds, keep in mind it was late and I was all by myself in the lobby. A young lady finally came down with my bucket of ice so I told her what just happened and asked her about the ghost in the hotel that many around town have talked about. She told me the hotel have a lot of ghosts! And one of them was the hotel bell hop who was on display as a mannequin dressed in bell hop uniform in the lobby right next to the check-in counter and just across from the couch I was sitting on. I told the lady my experience and that I think I just met this bell hop ghost! Maybe the couch was rigged and the shaking was the hotel’s gimmick to reinforce the fabled ghost stories to its guests for marketing purposes, but then again, just maybe, I just had the pleasure of meeting one of the hotel’s resident ghosts, the bell hop ghost!
On to day 2 of our trip. We drove a few minutes up to “Gold Bug Mine”. It was a trip worth taking, granted I’ve never been to a gold mine and so I’m not the expert in what a gold mine trip is worth or not worth taken in an old town, though I was not disappointed at the end. We got there about 5 minutes before the self-guided mine tour opened for tourist consumption and though we saw the sign at the gift store door window was “open” (tickets to gold mine upstairs), the door was closed and locked. So I peeked in. An older guy walking with a cane approached the door I was peeking into and promptly turned the hanging sign at the door the other way, showing “closed”! LOL. I thought it was a joke since the folks down on Main street was so nice and hospitable just the day before. I stood there perplexed, so the older guy with the cane who turned to sign the other way to show “closed” opened the door, at which time I chuckled, still thinking it was all a joke, though he had a cold stare! And he said nothing. So I offered, are you closed? Yes, he replied with no further courtesy. So at this point, I felt his serious demeanor, and I asked what time they opened (though knowing very well they open 5 minutes later at 10:00am). He replied with a stern look on his face, “10”……it was 9:55am at the time, LOL! I was taken aback after the courteous Main Street merchants and residents the day before. So all I could do was chuckle and say I’ll be back then…..not a good next day start to an otherwise relatively surprisingly hospitable day on Main Street before.
So we left the gift shop (gold mine tickets upstairs) hoping to find some mildly sloped trails to hike in the area to kill some time. But the short relatively steep slopes around the mine forced us, mainly my old torn ankles, to ditch the hiking and we headed back to the room above the gift shop where the tickets for the self-guided smart phone audio tour ticket can be bought. The lady selling the tour tickets was very uninspired, not judging, it is what it is, I was just tainted and spoiled by the nice happy persona of Main Street Placerville the day before. The tour inside the gold mine was terrific, maybe not $10 per senior and $12 per (regular) adult great (the tour is advertised as a short 15 minute audio tour), but it’s the only paid event we were in on our visit to Placerville, and its like an air-conditioner in the gold mine in the 90plus degree weather! We made sure we took full advantage of our $32 cost of admission (2 seniors and 1 adult), listening to the entire audio (you can fast forward the audio, but we didn’t) as we trekked into this historic gold mine. Very educational!
Next, we hiked up the “Stamp Mill Trail” which is a short relatively easy trail up the hill next to the road up to the Stamp Mill. The Stamp Mill did not disappoint, in fact it may be the highlight of our trip if not for the nice folks down on Main Street who make it hard to decide on best of town!
The guide at the Stamp Mill was a gracious 70+ year old gentleman with a heart of gold and a patience to match. We did both introduce ourselves at some point (I introduced my family as well), but as I said, verbal names escape me like an a leak in a spigot, though both my wife and son think his name was Mike. So I’ll just go with Mike, but you know who you are, Mike or someone in my memory ephemeral memory, though I still have a visual memory of who you are (like I said, I’m a visual person!), I’ll buy you a beer or any other alcoholic beverage of your choice if I ever bump into you again. Your patience and using layman terms to explain the Stamp Mill and the other subsequent contraptions used to extract the finite gold dust gave me a much needed understanding and appreciation of the process of extracting gold. You said yourself at the end as we were just chit-chatting that you suffer physically from your pursue of gold as a labor of love, though a few “Eureka”s would have been nice (you told me you’ve had knee surgery among other physical issues from mining), but you persist, and I salute you with my 2 nightly martinis right now as I write, and may this bring you much gold prospecting success, cheers! 🍸🍸
We did not proceed to the Blacksmith which was right next door since if my calculus were correct, the blacksmith would have given us another long presentation which I did not mind, but my itinerary told us we did not have the time.
The Stamp Mill was our last stop which we have completed and completely enjoyed, so we had lunch back down near the mine, with some Subway sandwiches we bought from back down in town. And we were soon heading back home, our comfort zone. So, all of Main Street Placerville has proven my reservations about small towns and this town of Placerville, CA specifically, wrong – this town is very hospitable with charming engaging people, and some very entertaining and mostly just nice down-to-earth real folks with a heart of gold (pun intended!) that I’ve ever had the pleasure of crossing paths with! The folks on Main Street were so hospitable, the smart-ass in me just had to joke to my wife, “it’s like a “Stepford” town, wife AND husband,” in the best possible way and where we’all should be – only we tainted world view outsiders are not prepared for and become confused by this kindness of strangers! And I’m sure my limited world view on Placerville has been askewed and flawed by Main Street and the immediate surrounding areas, so come and experience and explore for youself and decide for yourselves, it is defintely a trip worth taking, and a trip not taken is a life’s adventure lossed. This is my story, and I’m sticking to it!
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