Georgetown: Remote, Historic, and Deeply Fire-Exposed
This Gold Rush-era mountain town of 2,300 sits on the Georgetown Divide surrounded by dense forest with limited road access. For Georgetown homeowners, wildfire preparedness isn't optional — it's the price of living in one of the Sierra's most beautiful and most vulnerable communities.
Georgetown is an unincorporated community of roughly 2,300 people perched on the Georgetown Divide in central El Dorado County, at approximately 2,600 feet elevation between the North and Middle Forks of the American River. Founded during the Gold Rush in 1849, the town retains its historic character — a compact main street, older housing stock, and a rural mountain identity that its residents fiercely protect. The surrounding landscape is dense mixed forest of ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, black oak, and manzanita, extending virtually unbroken from Georgetown's town limits to the Eldorado National Forest.
Georgetown's isolation is both its appeal and its greatest vulnerability. The community is accessed primarily via Georgetown Divide Road (Highway 193) from the west and Wentworth Springs Road from the east — both narrow, winding mountain roads that pass through miles of continuous forest. During a wildfire, these roads could be compromised by fire, smoke, or falling trees, leaving residents with extremely limited evacuation options. The 2014 King Fire burned to within 15 miles of Georgetown, and the community's fire department has responded to numerous smaller fires in the surrounding forest.