El Dorado County, California

El Dorado County, one of the oldest and richest of the foot-hill mining counties, extends from Sacramento County on the west to the state line of Nevada on the east. Its area is 1,890 square miles, and its population, given by the census of 1880 as 10,683, is now estimated at 12,000. Placerville, the county seat, is in the center of a once rich mining country, but now devoted to almost equally profitable fruit-growing and agriculture; it once ranked among the leading cities of California. Coloma, once the county seat, is celebrated as the place where gold was first discovered, in Sutter's mill-race. The country rises by gradual ascent from the Sacramento valley region to the Sierra, crowned by snow the year round. All the western part, consisting of fertile plains and foothills, is especially adapted to fruit, and within five years a great area has been planted to the choicest varieties. Besides agriculture and fruit-growing, for which the system of mining ditches furnishes ample irrigation when required, mining is still carried on extensively. The assessed valuation in 1889 was $3,879,887.

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Source: California State Gazetteer and Business Directory 1890, Volume II, R. L. Polk & Company, 1890.