There are two legends about the creation of the Hangtown Fry. The first has to do with a miner during the gold rush who, having gathered up a fortune in the nuggets, went into a hotel in Hangtown (aka Placerville) and asked for the most expensive meal they had. Since oysters and eggs were both frightfully expensive during the gold rush, he told the cook to put them together and serve 'em up!
I prefer the second story. Placerville got it's nickname because of the number of hangings that took place there. Anything to keep law and order, y'know. A man had been unjustly convicted of murder, and was sentenced to hang. For his last meal, he asked for a dish "that he'd had long ago," which just so happened to be made from the ingredients that were frightfully hard to come by in those gold rush times - eggs and oysters. In the time that it took to find those ingredients, the man's friends were able to prove his innocence. The cook, however, after having taken all the time and effort to get everything together, insisted that the man eat the dish anyway. Lo and behold, he liked it, and the Hangtown Fry was born.
