Placerville, Colorado

Placerville is a census-designated place (CDP) and post office in and governed by San Miguel County, Colorado, United States. The Placerville post office has the ZIP Code 81430 (post office boxes). At the United States Census 2020, the population of the Placerville CDP was 362.

History Placerville was originally established as a small mining camp, named after the placer gold mines located on the San Miguel River and Leopard Creek. The location became known as Old Placerville after the Rio Grande Southern Railroad constructed a depot and several passing sidings west of the original settlement, calling it Placerville.

A. B. Frenzel discovered vanadium-bearing sandstone near Placerville in the late 1890s. The ore was in strataform bodies in the Entrada Sandstone (Jurassic) east of the town. The principal mineral was roscoelite, with minor montroseite and carnotite. 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.F. L. Ransome, Occurrence of the uranium and vanadium ores, American Journal of Science, Aug 1900, v.10, n.56, p.121-127. By 1901–1902, Frenzel was excavating several thousand tons intended for shipment to Europe.Harry E. Lee (1903) Report of the Colorado State Bureau of Mines for the Years 1901-1902, p.201. 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.Frank L. Hess (1913) Notes on the vanadium deposits near Placerville, Colorado, in Contributions to Economic Geology, 1911, US Geological Survey, Bulletin 530, p.142-156. 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.William L. Chenowith (1980) Uranium in Colorado, in Colorado Geology, Denver: Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, p.217. Through 1940, the mines produced about 3.7 million pounds of vanadium.R.P. Fischer and others (1947) Vanadium deposits near Placerville, San Miguel County, Colorado, Colorado Scientific Society Proceedings, v.15 n.3, p.120.

The Placerville Schoolhouse, a one-room schoolhouse, operated from 1908 to 1960.

In 1909, the failure of the Trout Lake Dam caused the flooding of Placerville as well as Sawpit and Newmire.

Although carnotite 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.A.L. Bush and others (1959) Areal geology of the Placerville Quadrangle, San Miguel County, Colorado, US Geological Survey, Bulletin 1072-E, p.373. Beginning about 1950, the small uranium content of the ore was also recovered from the ore.R.P. Fischer (1968) Vanadium deposits of the Placerville area, San Miguel County, Colorado, in San Juan-San Miguel-La Plata Region, New Mexico and Colorado, New Mexico Geological Society, p.100-103.

Geography The Placerville CDP has an area of , all land.

Climate

According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Placerville has a warm-summer humid continental climate, abbreviated "Dfb" on climate maps. The hottest temperature recorded in Placerville was on July 23, 2020, and June 12–13, 2021, while the coldest temperature recorded was on February 2, 2011, and January 15, 2013.

Demographics

The United States Census Bureau defined the for the

Transportation Placerville is part of Colorado's Bustang network. It is on the Durango-Grand Junction Outrider line.

Education It is in the Telluride School District. - Text list

Placerville, Colorado

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