Sides argue over Placerville’s ‘Old Hangtown’ nickname
SACRAMENTO — Outdated and offensive, or historically significant?
Amid nationwide protests centered on the topics of police reform and racial injustice, sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last week, two petition efforts popped up this week regarding the welcome sign that greets those entering the Northern California city of Placerville.
The first calls for the city council to drop the words “Old Hangtown” from that sign and to begin distancing itself from the nickname, arguing that it “suggests that racial hate crimes are acceptable.”
A few days later, a second petition emerged, urging the council to keep the sign as is, claiming that the town moniker “is only offensive to those who read malicious intent into something that is purely historical.”
The “Remove ‘Old Hangtown’” petition was posted to Change.org on Monday, and more than 1,200 had signed it as of Friday morning. The “Keep ‘Old Hangtown’” campaign started Thursday evening and shot past 4,000 signatures Friday morning.
“Due to the recent murder of George Floyd, leading to peaceful protesting and explosive riots, Placerville needs to be progressive in making our community safe and comfortable for (people of color),” wrote Camille Lloyd, who started the first petition. “... The name ‘Hangtown’ is outdated and offensive, and suggests that racial hate crimes are acceptable.”
Lloyd wrote that, despite the historical claims of the nickname not being related to racial violence, that the mannequin “being lynched and displayed” in front of Hangman’s Tree on Main Street “celebrates and glorifies a terribly racist and violent history.”
Lloyd adds that the welcome sign “could be triggering for victims of hate crimes” and, in a public
Facebook post to a group called “El Dorado Progressives,” argues that removing it would be the first step to slowly “encourage local businesses to change their names and take down other ‘Hangtown’ signs.” The hanging effigy has been a subject of off-and-on controversy within the community for years.
On the other hand, the keep-the-sign petition calls the Hangtown nickname “an indelible part of local and state history.”
“In actuality, a large amount of the draw of our town is the history and the preservation of it,” wrote Sean Yeske in his counterpetition. “Look on the walls of just about any store or restaurant downtown and see photos from over a hundred years ago of the very street you are on and how much, but also how little, it has changed.”
Yeske also said the other petition incorrectly suggests “that the Old Hangtown’s name came by way of racially charged hangings, which it didn’t.”
Comments sections on Facebook, where both petitions have been posted numerous times, quickly grew heated with divided opinions on the matter.
Placerville, a Gold Rush town that’s now the seat of El Dorado County and home to about 11,000 people, certainly doesn’t shy away from the nickname.
Quite the opposite:
Along the city’s Main Street and nearby Broadway, there’s the Hangman’s Tree attraction, Hangtown Skate Shop, the Hangtown Originals gift shop, Hangtown Cyclery, Hangtown Painting, Hangtown Cantina, Hangtown Village Square, Hangtown Travel Inc., Hangtown Vapor N’ Tobacco Hub, Hangtown Motel and the Hangtown shooting range.
On the other side of the creek, called Hangtown Creek, there’s the Hangtown Grange. The city also holds an annual Hangtown Musical Festival.
The word appears five words into the City of Placerville’s webpage for its own history: “The story of old Hangtown really begins ... “
The nickname for Placerville — a city officially incorporated in 1854, disbanded due to a railroad dispute in 1873 and re-incorporated in 1900, according to its archives — does undoubtedly stem from violence.
“Murders and robberies became frequent in isolated camps along the American River, and before long, several merchants and miners had lost their poke of gold at knife point,” the city history page reads.
“After one such crime early in 1849, an impromptu citizens jury met to consider the fate of the three accused. The jury wasted little time reaching a verdict. Then the question was asked, What shall be done with them? Someone shouted, Hang them! The majority were in agreement. And so it was that the first known hanging in the Mother Lode ... was carried out.”
Hangman’s Tree, the attraction at 305 Main St. that has a mannequin hanging from a wooden post high on its storefront, was registered as a state historical landmark in 1934 and maintains that status.
“The stump of the tree” upon which the namesake hangings took place “is under the building on which the plaque is placed,” California state Parks’ Office of Historic Preservation’s description of the landmark reads.
Recent protest demonstrations in response to Floyd’s death have largely taken place in major cities across the U.S., but have also been held in the suburbs. The Placerville Police Department said a planned protest event set for Monday evening was canceled over fears that it could erupt in violence or damage, as those over the weekend in Sacramento did.