For centuries, the native Nisenan (Maidu) and Washo tribes occupied what would later become Placer County, California. The King of Spain ruled Alta California from the 1500s until the 1820s when Mexico won their independence from Spain. California then fell under Mexican rule until the Mexican-American War of the 1840s, following which the United States set up a military government and California became a US territory. In the meantime, on a fateful day in 1848, James Marshall discovered a small piece of gold in the sawmill owned by John Sutter. From that point, life as it had been known by the Nisenan and Washo was changed forever. The Gold Rush was on!

Thousands of men, and many women, of diverse backgrounds, traditions, and ways of life poured into the area, and by the spring of 1849, scores of mining camps with colorful names popped up along the rivers and streams throughout the area. The original meaning of their names - Condemned Bar, Granite Bar, Horseshoe Bar, Deadman's Bar, Rattlesnake Bar, Whiskey Bar, Murderer's Bar, Poverty Bar, and Humbug Bar - is buried in their histories, identities surviving only as quaint street names, parks, and local areas.

As gold panned out along the rivers, miners moved up the canyons and hillsides in their search, literally washing the mountains away with their powerful hoses. Soon, many settlements near the mines were established on higher ground: Forest Hill, Dutch Flat, Iowa Hill, Gold Run, Sunny South, Bullion, Damascus, Illinoistown, Yankee Jim's, Michigan Bluff and Ophir. Many who came in search of gold ultimately went on to establish other businesses and grew fruit and vegetables, while continuing to work their claims. While gold became more difficult to extract, agriculture flourished, especially in the fertile foothill and valley soils. Logging and ice industries grew in importance as towns replaced mining camps and trading centers.

First the railroad steamed through the Sierras, and then the popularity of the automobile after the turn of the century further drove the rapid growth and development which has continued to the present day. The towns of Roseville, Rocklin, Loomis, Penryn, Newcastle, Auburn, and Colfax, all located along the Central Pacific Line, became important shipping centers for the agriculture and quarry industries. The completion of the various highway systems brought a new gold: Tourism.