The Placer 175 oral history project complements a year-long effort to celebrate the county’s history with community events and history engagements. Photo courtesy of Placer County

AUBURN, CA (MPG) - Placer County has launched a StoryCorps-inspired community oral history collection project as it continues observances for its 175th anniversary this year. 

All are invited to record an interview with someone important in their lives to help capture and archive the stories of Placer’s residents and communities. 

Using StoryCorps’ Do It Yourself program resources, participants can record interviews from anywhere using the StoryCorps Connect website or the StoryCorps app. Or they may attend a hosted in-person recording session facilitated by county staff at locations throughout the county. Reservations are required for in-person sessions.

Recordings will be archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, as well as locally at the Placer County Museum Archive. Interviews recorded before Oct. 10 may also be included in a time capsule Placer County will place at the Placer County Museum in Auburn, to be opened in 2101 for the county’s 250th anniversary.

“Among our residents are Olympians, war heroes and world-famous artists. But the texture of history is just as much made up of the more ordinary lives the rest of us are living,” said project manager Chris Gray-Garcia. “The chance to record an interview for Placer 175 is also a chance to ask someone you know about their life and make sure they’re remembered by history, too.”

More information on how to record an interview for the Placer 175 oral history project is available on the project web page at https://engage.placer.ca.gov/placer-175-oral-history.

Interviews collected through the project will be published on the Placer 175 community page on the StoryCorps Archive website at https://archive.storycorps.org/communities/placer-175/.  

The project will collect interviews through the end of October. 

Placer County was established April 25, 1851. The Placer 175 oral history project complements a year-long effort to celebrate the county’s history with community events and history engagements. More information on the observances is available on the county’s 175th anniversary web page at https://www.placer.ca.gov/10713/Placer-County-175th-Anniversary.