Placerville, Colorado | |
|---|---|
 Front Street in Placerville. | |
  Placerville Location of the Placerville CDP in theState of Colorado | |
| Coordinates:38°00′05″N108°01′52″W / 38.00139°N 108.03111°W /38.00139; -108.03111 (Placerville CDP, Colorado)[1] | |
| Country |  United States |
| State |  Colorado |
| County | San Miguel County |
| Government | |
| • Type | unincorporated community |
| Area | |
• Total | 0.757 sq mi (1.961 km2) |
| • Land | 0.757 sq mi (1.961 km2) |
| • Water | 0 sq mi (0.000 km2) |
| Elevation | 7,415 ft (2,260 m) |
| Population (2020) | |
• Total | 362 |
| • Density | 478/sq mi (185/km2) |
| [3] | |
| Time zone | UTC-7 (MST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-6 (MDT) |
| ZIP Code[4] | 81430 |
| Area code | 970 |
| GNIS feature ID | 2805925[1] |
Placerville is acensus-designated place (CDP) andpost office in and governed bySan Miguel County,Colorado, United States. The Placerville post office has theZIP Code 81430 (post office boxes).[4] At theUnited States Census 2020, the population of the Placerville CDP was 362.[3]
Placerville was originally established as a small mining camp, named after theplacergold mines located on theSan Miguel River andLeopard Creek. The location became known as Old Placerville after theRio Grande Southern Railroad constructed a depot and several passing sidings west of the original settlement, calling it Placerville.
A. B. Frenzel discoveredvanadium-bearing sandstone near Placerville in the late 1890s. The ore was in strataform bodies in theEntrada Sandstone (Jurassic) east of the town. The principal mineral wasroscoelite, with minormontroseite andcarnotite. By the fall of 1899, development was described as "of the most superficial character," although Frenzel had driven one tunnel 18 feet into the rock.[5] By 1901-1902, Frenzel was excavating several thousand tons intended for shipment toEurope.[6] Most of the Placerville ore was less than 3% vanadium, too low grade to pay for shipment to Europe, so in 1905 the Vanadium Alloys Co. built an ore-processing mill southeast of Placerville to recover the metal as ferro-vanadium, which it sold.[7] At least five mines were active at one time, and by 1919 the two ore mills at Placerville were producing 30% of the world's vanadium.[8] Through 1940, the mines produced about 3.7 million pounds of vanadium.[9]
ThePlacerville Schoolhouse, aone-room schoolhouse, operated from 1908 to 1960.
In 1909, the failure of theTrout Lake Dam caused the flooding of Placerville as well asSawpit andNewmire.[10]
Althoughcarnotite was recognized as a minor constituent of the ore since its discovery, the amount was small, and no assays were made of the uranium content of the ore until World War II.[11] Beginning about 1950, the small uranium content of the ore was also recovered from the ore.[12]
The Placerville CDP has an area of 485 acres (1.961 km2), all land.[2]
According to theKöppen Climate Classification system, Placerville has awarm-summer humid continental climate, abbreviated "Dfb" on climate maps. The hottest temperature recorded in Placerville was 95 °F (35.0 °C) on July 23, 2020 and June 12–13, 2021, while the coldest temperature recorded was −17 °F (−27.2 °C) on February 2, 2011 and January 15, 2013.[13]
| Climate data for Placerville, Colorado, 1991–2020 normals, extremes 2008–present | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °F (°C) | 62 (17) | 64 (18) | 72 (22) | 80 (27) | 87 (31) | 95 (35) | 95 (35) | 93 (34) | 92 (33) | 86 (30) | 71 (22) | 63 (17) | 95 (35) |
| Mean daily maximum °F (°C) | 40.1 (4.5) | 42.6 (5.9) | 51.6 (10.9) | 58.2 (14.6) | 67.9 (19.9) | 79.8 (26.6) | 83.0 (28.3) | 79.7 (26.5) | 73.9 (23.3) | 61.8 (16.6) | 49.8 (9.9) | 40.4 (4.7) | 60.7 (16.0) |
| Daily mean °F (°C) | 26.3 (−3.2) | 29.2 (−1.6) | 36.9 (2.7) | 43.2 (6.2) | 51.4 (10.8) | 62.2 (16.8) | 66.7 (19.3) | 64.4 (18.0) | 57.9 (14.4) | 45.8 (7.7) | 34.3 (1.3) | 26.4 (−3.1) | 45.4 (7.4) |
| Mean daily minimum °F (°C) | 12.5 (−10.8) | 15.7 (−9.1) | 22.3 (−5.4) | 28.3 (−2.1) | 34.9 (1.6) | 44.6 (7.0) | 50.3 (10.2) | 49.1 (9.5) | 41.9 (5.5) | 29.8 (−1.2) | 18.8 (−7.3) | 12.3 (−10.9) | 30.0 (−1.1) |
| Mean minimum °F (°C) | −4.7 (−20.4) | −3.2 (−19.6) | 5.9 (−14.5) | 14.2 (−9.9) | 24.2 (−4.3) | 32.4 (0.2) | 42.4 (5.8) | 42.6 (5.9) | 30.4 (−0.9) | 16.5 (−8.6) | 4.7 (−15.2) | −6.6 (−21.4) | −9.1 (−22.8) |
| Record low °F (°C) | −17 (−27) | −17 (−27) | −6 (−21) | 4 (−16) | 19 (−7) | 29 (−2) | 34 (1) | 32 (0) | 24 (−4) | 2 (−17) | −12 (−24) | −16 (−27) | −17 (−27) |
| Averageprecipitation inches (mm) | 1.42 (36) | 1.53 (39) | 1.83 (46) | 1.61 (41) | 1.83 (46) | 0.81 (21) | 2.47 (63) | 2.56 (65) | 2.52 (64) | 2.17 (55) | 1.62 (41) | 1.15 (29) | 21.52 (546) |
| Average snowfall inches (cm) | 13.1 (33) | 12.5 (32) | 13.2 (34) | 9.3 (24) | 1.3 (3.3) | 0.1 (0.25) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.3 (0.76) | 2.6 (6.6) | 10.2 (26) | 13.6 (35) | 76.2 (194.91) |
| Average extreme snow depth inches (cm) | 13.8 (35) | 17.2 (44) | 10.6 (27) | 4.1 (10) | 1.4 (3.6) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 0.0 (0.0) | 2.3 (5.8) | 6.1 (15) | 10.9 (28) | 18.3 (46) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 0.01 in) | 7.6 | 8.4 | 8.6 | 8.8 | 7.4 | 4.5 | 9.6 | 13.6 | 9.8 | 7.0 | 6.2 | 7.9 | 99.4 |
| Average snowy days(≥ 0.1 in) | 6.6 | 7.5 | 6.6 | 4.5 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 4.1 | 6.1 | 37.9 |
| Source 1: NOAA[14][15] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: National Weather Service (mean maxima and minima, snow depth 2008-2022)[13] | |||||||||||||
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 362 | — |
| Source:United States Census Bureau | ||
TheUnited States Census Bureau defined thePlacerville CDP for theUnited States Census 2020.
Placerville is part of Colorado'sBustang network. It is on the Durango-Grand Junction Outrider line.[16]
Municipalities and communities ofSan Miguel County, Colorado,United States | ||
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| Towns |  | |
| CDP | ||
| Unincorporated communities | ||
| Ghost towns | ||
| International | |
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| National | |
