RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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Welcome to Placer ...

Placer is located in Josephine County<1>.

Placer was established in 1885.

Placer is 1,430 feet [436 m] above sea level.<2>.

Time Zone: Placer lies in the Pacific Time Zone (PST/PDT) and observes daylight saving time

Area Codes for Placer: 541 & 458<3>

Going back to its beginning, Placer was originally named Tom East. For more information about the names of Placer, see The Names of Placer on our Genealogy Page.

Communities Also Named Placer ...

Using our Gazetteer, we found that there are 3 communities that are also named Placer - they are located in Colorado and Montana (2).

For more information, see our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Placer.

Communities near Placer ...

We have created a list of 10 communities that are near Placer.

To Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

We have a couple of sections for those tracing their genealogy.

We created a list of cemeteries that are in the area around Placer. Our list includes the location of those cemeteries and we provide an overhead view. See our Cemetery List for Placer.

Using the information from an 1895 Atlas, we've created a list of communities that were in the area of Placer. Our list includes information such as whether the 1895 community had a post office or railroad service. See our List of 1890's Communities around Placer.

We also have a detailed list of newspapers that have been published in the area around Placer. See our Newspapers Page for Placer.

TripAdvisor Tourism Pages for Placer ...

Looking for more information about Placer? A wonderful source is the TripAdvisor website. We always start with the TripAdvisor Tourism page, where you can read an overview with links that will help you find lodging, restaurants and attractions.

While we are unaware of a Tourism page that is specific to Placer, there are neighboring communities that do have Tourism pages. A map of those communities can be found with our TripAdvisor Page for Placer.

Adding Placer to Our Gazetteer ...

We originally found mention of Placer in both the FIPS-55 and the GNIS. For more information, see the FIPS and GNIS Codes sections on our Miscellaneous Page.

From our notes, the earliest published mention we've found for Placer was in the document titled List of Post Offices from Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<6>

From that list, the Placer post office opened in 1894.

For more details, see References and Mentions for Placer.

Footnotes ...

<1>If you're interested in how the shape of Oregon's counties, including Josephine, have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
<2>The elevation is an estimate for the area around Placer - it will be higher in some places and lower in others.
<3>When there's a risk of an area code running out of phone numbers, an 'Overlay Area Code' is created that has the same geographic boundaries as the existing area code. In this case, the 541 code has been Overlayed with the 458 area code. New phone numbers in the Placer area will be assigned with one of these codes: 541 or 458. As a result, placing a call in the Placer area will require 10-digit dialing (where you enter both the area code and then the phone number).
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<6>A copy of their list with background information can be found at:

      https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/