El Dorado, "The Gilded One", was first known as Mud Springs from the boggy quagmire the cattle and horses made of a nearby watering place.

Originally an important camp on the old Carson Trail, by 1849-50 it had become the center of a mining district and the crossroads for freight and stagecoach lines.

[4] In 1945, a bar in an 1850s building, originally a Wells Fargo weigh station, was converted into roadside barbecue joint, called Poor Red’s Bar-B-Q.

Because the town is roughly halfway between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, drivers - including the Rat Pack - frequently stopped there.

[8] Federally, El Dorado is in California's 5th congressional district, represented by Republican Tom McClintock.