Sierra County Sheriff’s Gallows — Downieville, CA - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

The following information from National Register files:

The Sierra County Sheriff's Gallows stand today on a site 30 feet east of the present Sierra County Courthouse, a location on which it has stood since 1933. The structure, comprised nearly entirely of wood, stands approximately 14 1/2 feet tall and covers an area of approximately 10 1/2 by 11 1/2 feet. The structure is currently painted beige, although the color has no historic significance. The trapdoor mechanism, constructed of flat steel, is still in place and remains fully functional.

On Friday, November 27, 1885, at 2:00 p.m., twenty year old James O'Neill was hanged from a gallows adjacent to the Sierra County Courthouse in Downieville With that event, so ended within Sierra County the administration of capital punishment — the very subject that is said to have been a driving force in the creation of the County some thirty three years earlier. Over a hundred later, that gallows continues to stand adjacent to the county's present courthouse, a perpetual representative of an era that has passed.

Following James O'Neill's execution, the gallows was dismantled, and placed in storage in the attic of the original county courthouse. Designed to be portable, the structure was held together through the use of wooden pegs and was easily dismantled into pieces by the removal of those pegs. With such executions becoming a periodic occurrence, it was the Sheriff's intent to store the structure until its use was again warranted. In 1891, however, the California State Legislature amended the state's death penalty statutes and mandated that executions be conducted at the state level by the wardens of two California State Prisons, those at San Quentin in Marin County, and Folsom in Sacramento County. Further changes in state law in 1941 ended hanging as a means of execution altogether and the gas chamber at San Quentin became the sole method for inflicting the sentence of death within California. With such changes, this gallows was destined to become only a historic relic.

From 1885 until 1927, long forgotten, the gallows remained, hidden in the attic of the original county courthouse. Surprisingly discovered by county employees in 1927, it was re-erected adjacent the courthouse by Sheriff George C. Bynon. In 1931, the gallows was again removed from the courthouse grounds, pending placement in a proposed county museum. With no suitable building located, the structure was again re-erected in its present location under the auspices of the Native Daughters of the Golden West in 1933. In 1947, it stood in place while watching the original Sierra County Courthouse (built in 1854, and the gallows place of storage for forty two years), be consumed by fire. It was in the shadow of that courthouse that the gallows served its original intended purpose. Over the years, the structure became increasingly deteriorated as its age increased and many modifications were made by the addition of cross bracing and structural steel to keep the structure standing.

In August of 1986, the Sierra County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution acknowledging the gallows importance as a historic artifact and as an ambassador of California's criminal justice past. In doing so, the Board initiated a course of action culminating in the gallows undergoing a complete restoration to its 1885 appearance. On February 6, 1987,.this structure gained further recognition when the California State Historical Resources Commission designated the Sierra County Sheriff's Gallows as California Registered Historical Landmark No. 971.