El Dorado County, California along with the population since the 1960 Winter Olympics, hosted at Squaw Valley Ski Resort in neighboring Placer County. The present-day site of El Dorado County was once home to the Maidu, Washoe, and Miwok Native American tribes, and is notable for being the site of the 1848 gold discovery that sparked the California Gold Rush. The County of El Dorado was one of California's original 27 counties created effective February 18, 1850 (the number has risen to 58 today). Its name is derived from the Spanish meaning "the gilded/golden". The final segments of the Pony Express mail route ran
El Dorado Hills, California the end of 2007. The Fire Department's district covers a larger geographic area than the CSD and is more nearly equivalent to the El Dorado County definition of the El Dorado Hills Community Region. In the California State Legislature, El Dorado Hills is in , and . In the United States House of Representatives, El Dorado Hills is in . As an unincorporated area, the local government of El Dorado Hills is that of El Dorado County. Two supervisorial districts include parts of El Dorado Hills. District 1 is represented by John Hidahl and District 2 by Shiva Frentzen. A