QUIET STREETS ANDCOUNTRY LANES
QUIET STREETS AND
By MICHELE MARINER
Located at the west end of El Dorado County, El Dorado Hills is
the gateway into the county from Highway 50.
In an area that has experienced tremendous residential growth in
the past two decades, El Dorado Hills, which borders Sacramento
County, is a haven for those who work in the city but choose to
live in the serene, picturesque landscape. In 1994 it was
estimated the population was 14,689, according to the El Dorado
County Transportation Commission. El Dorado Hills is governed by
a five-member Community Services District board that oversees
myriad issues, such as recreation services.
El Dorado Hills is home to four elementary schools, one junior hi
and one high school. Over on the south side Highway 50 adjacent
to El Dorado Hills lies the community of Latrobe. Its origins lie
with the completion the railroad in 1864. Latrobe served a
station and rest stop for the Placerville and Sacramento Valley Railroad. Today some 300 people call Latrobe home.
The area is also home to Wetsel-Oviatt Lumber Co., the second
largest business of its sort in El Dorado County, next to Sierra
Pacific Industries in Camino. Wetsel-Oviatt went into business in
1939 in Omo Ranch and moved to the present 2 acre site south of
El Dorado Hills in 1972.
The mill, which employs 100, produces some 45 million board feet
of lumber a year, most of which is used for construction of
California housing.
One of the largest housing developments in the works in the
greater Sacramento area is the Russell Ranch project, which
sprawls more than 1,739 acres on the east side of Folsom adjacent
to the Sacramento-El Dorado county line.
The El Dorado Hills and Latrobe areas were popular stops for
fortune seekers during the Gold Rush era. One,such stop was
Mormon Tavern, constructed in 1849, just east of White Rock Road.
The site was a popular spot for train and stage stops and about
nine years later became a Pony Express remount station.
In the late 1880s the 22-room hotel, restaurant, saloon and dance
hall was sold to Joseph Joerger. A monument symbolizing the
once-busy inn was built in 1960 on the south side of Highway 50
in El Dorado Hills off White Rock Road.
At about that time the tavern was condemned and removed to make
way for Highway 50.
Another popular town in the late 1800s and early 1900s was
Clarksville, located on the south side of Highway 50, just south
of the present day El Dorado Hills Golf Course. A Railroad House
was built in anticipation of the railroad coming through, which
never happened.
In the 1960s the first ``villages'' of homes were built in El
Dorado Hills. In the 1980s through today, the building of homes
has continued to expand, particularly in areas north of Green
Valley Road, like Green Valley Hills and Lake Forest. In 1988 El
Dorado Hills was home to the ``Street of Dreams,'' a festival of
fine homes in Lake Forest featuring seven new, fully furnished
and landscaped 689 homes ranging in price from $450,000-$700,000,
showcasing innovative ideas in building, designing, architecture
and El Dorado Hills Chamber landscaping.
Nearby Folsom Lake has served as a water source for drinking and
irrigation as well as recreation for swimming, boating, camping
and fishing.
Folsom Dam was completed in 1956 at a cost of $90 million. The
dam is 1,400 feet long and 340 feet high, consisting of two
earth-filled wing dams, an auxiliary dam at Mormon Island and
eight dikes providing 75 miles of shoreline.
Reprinted from the Mountain
Democrat