Mount Eden, California
Encyclopedia
Mount Eden, also known as Eden Township, is a former city that has been incorporated into Hayward
Hayward, California
Hayward is a city located in the East Bay in Alameda County, California. With a population of 144,186, Hayward is the sixth largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area and the third largest in Alameda County. Hayward was ranked as the 37th most populous municipality in California. It is included in...

 in Alameda County
Alameda County, California
Alameda County is a county in the U.S. state of California. It occupies most of the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 1,510,271, making it the 7th most populous county in the state...

, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, United States of America. It lies at an elevation of 43 feet (13 m).
Mount Eden was founded in 1850 by a group of farmers from Mount Eden, Kentucky, drawn to California by the Gold Rush
Gold rush
A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.In the 19th and early...

. The party disbanded upon reaching the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...

, but a few of them settled at a road crossing. They nailed a sign reading "Mt. Eden" to two trees, and the name stuck. A post office opened in 1860 and was in continuous operation until 1953.

A town developed at the site, on the shores of the bay. Mount Eden developed shipping and salt-harvesting industries. The salt companies gradually consolidated; after the demise of the Oliver Salt Company in 1931, only the Leslie Salt Company
Cargill
Cargill, Incorporated is a privately held, multinational corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Founded in 1865, it is now the largest privately held corporation in the United States in terms of revenue. If it were a public company, it would rank, as of 2011, number 13 on the Fortune 500,...

 remained. The shipping industry suffered from increasing competition from roads and railroads. Mount Eden experienced significant immigration from northern Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 and Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

.

The historic center of Mount Eden, now a freeway interchange, was around what was then Telegraph Avenue, now Hesperian Boulevard, between Depot Road and Jackson Street. The town was incorporated into Hayward in the late 1950s, though the post office and town name continued to be used until 1984 when the U. S. Postal Service decommissioned the post office.

The name "Mount Eden" survives in the names of some local institutions: Mount Eden High School, Eden Area Regional Occupation Program, Mount Eden Cemetery
Mount Eden Cemetery
Mount Eden Cemetery is a cemetery in Hayward, California, in the former city of Mount Eden. The site was first established in 1860 as a pioneer cemetery. It is still in use. As of 2005, there were 2,821 records .-External links:*...

, and Eden Congregational Church
Eden Congregational Church
Eden Congregational Church, also known as Pioneer Chapel, is a historic church building located just north of downtown Hayward in Alameda County, California. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007...

.

See also

  • Eden Landing, California
    Eden Landing, California
    Eden Landing is a former settlement in Alameda County, California. It was located west-southwest of Mount Eden. Its site is now located within the corporate limits of Hayward...

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