POPULATION: 403,711

INCORPORATION DATE: 1851

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:

• District 1 – Bonnie Gore
• District 2 – Shanti Landon
• District 3 – Jim Holmes
• District 4 – Suzanne Jones
• District 5 – Cindy Gustafson

FORM OF GOVERNMENT: Charter

PLACER. County seat, Auburn. Created April 25, 1851. Placer is probably a contraction of the words plaza de oro (the place of gold) and in Spanish means “a place near a river where gold is found.” The county derived its name from the numerous places where the method of extracting gold from the earth, called placer mining, was practiced.