Placer County located in the Sierra Nevada Mountain range, in what is known as the Gold Country. It stretches from the suburbs of Sacramento to Lake Tahoe and the Nevada border. Because of the expansion of the Sacramento metropolitan area, Placer County is one of the fastest growing counties in the state. Between 2000 and 2008, the population grew from 248,399 to 338,750. The county seat is the city of Auburn.

Placer County was home to the peaceful Nisenan Native Americans for hundreds of years before the discovery of gold in 1848 brought hordes of miners from around the world. Only three years after the discovery of gold, the fast-growing county was formed from portions of Sutter and Yuba counties on April 25, 1851. Placer County took its name from the Spanish word for “sand” or “gravel deposits containing gold.” Miners washed away the gravel, leaving the heavier gold, in a process known as "placer mining."

Gold mining was a major industry through the 1880s, but gradually the new residents turned to farming the fertile foothill soil, harvesting timber and working for the Southern Pacific Railroad.

County Website: http://www.placer.ca.gov/
County Fair: http://www.placercountyfair.org/
School District: http://www.placercoe.k12.ca.us/Pages/default.aspx