Unlike most of the places with "Carson" in their names in the American West, Carson Hill is not named after explorer Kit Carson, but instead it is named for Sgt. James H. Carson, a member of Colonel Jonathan D. Stevenson's Regiment of First New York Volunteers. He happened to be in Monterey when the California Gold Rush started. Carson first made his way to Weber Creek near Placerville and then moved south with the Angel and Murphy brothers (founders of Angels Camp and Murphys, respectively). After splitting up at what is now Angels Camp, Carson's group headed south and panned at a small tributary of the Stanislaus River, which they found incredibly rich in gold. They named this portion Carson Creek.