El Dorado County is a county located in the Gold Country in California. Its 2004 population was 172,889. The county seat is Placerville. Much of the population of the County has become suburbanized, as the metropolitan Sacramento area has expanded. El Dorado County was one of the original counties of California, created in 1850 and derives its name from "El Dorado" meaning "the gilded one" in Spanish. The county has a total area of 1,788 mi²,96% of it is land and 4% of it is water. The County contains the Desolation Wilderness, with Freel Peak as its highest point at 10,881 feet.