Where is Fremont, California located?
Fremont is an East Bay community just south of Oakland and north of San Jose. The recorded history of the Fremont area began on June 9, 1797, when Mission San José was founded by the Spaniard Father Fermin de Lasuen. The first English-speaking visitor to Fremont was the renowned trapper and explorer Jedediah Smith in 1827. The Mission prospered, eventually reaching a population of 1,886 inhabitants in 1831. In 1846 the town’s namesake, John C. Frémont, arrived. Fremont grew rapidly at the time of the Gold Rush. Agriculture dominated the economy with grapes, nursery plants, and olives as leading crops. In 1868 a magnitude 6.8 earthquake on the Hayward Fault collapsed buildings throughout Fremont, ruining Mission San José and its outbuildings. Until the 1906 San Francisco earthquake caused its destruction, Fremont’s Palmdale Winery was the largest in California. The ruins of the Palmdale Winery are still visible near the Five Corners in Irvington. From 1912-1916 the Niles section of Frem
