California Gold Rush town votes to remove noose from logo

A town in California has voted to remove a hanging noose from their logo after gaining the nickname ‘Hangtown” during The Gold Rush.

The city council of Placerville were mostly united in supporting the makeover of their logo after emotional testimony from local residents. They said the connotations of racism and violence towards Black people gave the wrong impression of the town.

However, some people thought the logo represented a history of the town and ought to be saved.

The logo in question shows a miner cleaning gold with a noose in the background hanging on a tree. Written next to the image is “City of Placerville”, “Old Hangtown” and “1854” the year that the town was incorporated. Its nearest major city is San Francisco, a two hour drive away.

It attracted thousands of people looking for gold from all over the globe in the mid 19th century, and crime followed the gold seekers.

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At the first, the town was named Dry Diggins but got nicknamed Hangtown after three suspected crooks from France and Chile were lynched by an angry mob of miners.

Another man was lynched the following year after he stabbed someone in the local bar.

After these incidents, crime was tackled by going to the police and not vigilante justice so therefore became better known as Placerville.