You can guess the context. To some residents, the noose carries racial undertones and a representative of the greater Sacramento NAACP urged residents to be inclusive and remove the image.

But the noose never referenced black hangings.

According to a 2008 version of the El Dorado Visitors Guide, it was all about the California gold rush.

Placerville was originally a gold camp that sprang up along a canyon creek. It was first known as Dry Diggins and later became known as Hangtown Creek.

Robberies and murders were prevalent for a time, and with no organized justice system the citizens were compelled to deal out their own justice. When men were suspected of a crime, the townspeople would convene and try the case. Dry Diggins was nicknamed "Hangtown" after several men were hung from an oak tree. The stump of the oak tree is still under the floor of the present saloon, the Hangman's Tree.