1888 Roethe (1 results)

Very good. Light wear along centerfold. Size 20.75 x 28.5 Inches. A scarce 1888 Louis Henry Roethe bird's-eye view of Placerville, California, popularly known as 'Hangtown'; for its raucous and violent history during the Gold Rush. Presenting a more urbane image of the town several decades after the Gold Rush, the view nonetheless references Placerville's tumultuous past. A Closer Look Oriented towards the north-northeast, this view covers the town of Placerville, with reference to the nearby towns of Georgetown, Greenwood, and Coloma (famous as the site of Sutter's Mill, where gold was first discovered in California), along with the Sierras in the background. Lake Tahoe lies not too far beyond the hills in the right background. This view is unusual and fascinating in that it depicts one of the archetypal Gold Rush towns decades after the Gold Rush, thus representing an early example of local romanticization of the Gold Rush era. Presenting remarkable detail, down to individual buildings, the view labels streets and waterways throughout, while numbering thirty locations keyed to an index at bottom. These include churches, hotels, railroad infrastructure, schools, a courthouse, an opera house, the post office, a brewery, and more. Several are illustrated in a border surrounding the view, along with depictions of the homes of prominent local residents, local businesses, and the office of the Weekly Observer , which published the view (some still stand). A small inset view above the title presents the town in 1851 when it was still known as Hangtown (see below). At the bottom, text expounds on the history of El Dorado County while promoting its climate and economic (mostly agricultural) potential. Rehabilitating Hangtown Placerville's early history offers one of the clearest examples of the heady, chaotic, and often violent environment of the California Gold Rush. Soon after James W. Marshall discovered gold at nearby Sutter's Mill, thousands of prospectors poured into the region and pitched tent cities, which soon developed into frontier towns. Initially known as 'Dry Diggin's,' the town seen here very quickly came to be known as 'Hangtown' for the frontier justice meted out there. Lacking a police force, mob violence and lynchings were the typical ways of handling murders and other crimes, which usually resulted from barroom brawls and robberies. Historians debate whether Hangtown was more prone to frontier justice than other gold rush boomtowns, and the moniker has long been debated among locals. Some embrace it as a sign of frontier hardiness (the city's official seal included a noose until 2021), while others reject it as a shameful chapter in the city's history. In any event, a group of respectable citizens successfully lobbied to have the town incorporated under Placerville rather than Hangtown in 1854. (Although the waterway running through town is still called Hangtown Creek.) More than just a group of diggings, Placerville developed as a logistics and financial hub for gold mining, which gave it greater longevity than other boom towns when the gold rush died down in the late 1850s. Though the population declined in the late 19th century, the presence of the railroad (the Southern Pacific) and surrounding farmland helped maintain economic activity, as seen here. The text at the bottom, particularly the portion on Placerville at the bottom-right, admirably tries to present a more genteel and even quaint view of the city, considerably exaggerating the town's population, if nothing else, in the process. Since the mid-20th century, Placerville has benefitted from being a convenient stopping point between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, as the latter became a popular tourist destination. American City Views City views were being produced in the United States as early as the 1830s, but the genre exploded after the American Civil War (1861 - 1865). Bridging the gap between maps and pictures, most 19th-century American bird's-eye vie.…