Eden is a city in Rockingham County in the U.S. state of North Carolina and is part of the Greensboro-High Point Metropolitan Statistical Area of the Piedmont Triad region.

[5][6] By the mid-eighteenth century, the territory of present-day Eden was within a 70,000-acre (280 km2) estate owned by William Byrd II, a planter of Virginia and North Carolina.

[7] During the last years of his life, William Byrd II dreamed of bringing large numbers of Swiss Protestants to the "Land of Eden"; he eventually acquired more than 100,000 acres (400 km2) in Virginia.

After years of negotiations, at least one boatload of Swiss did sail for "The Land of Eden" from Europe, but it was shipwrecked in a December gale off the coast of Virginia.

By that time, the "Land of Eden" began to be surrounded by small farms held by a wave of poor Scotch-Irish immigrants, whom Byrd had compared to the "Goths and Vandals.

"[citation needed][8] "Eden" was inherited by William Byrd III, who shared none of his father's dreams of colonization.

He was finally successful on November 8, 1755, when he sold 26,000 acres (110 km2) in North Carolina to Simon and Francis Farley, two merchant brothers from the island of Antigua.

The Farley brothers attempted to create plantations on some of the richest acres, but more frequently, settlers squatted on the land and built homesteads.

[citation needed] Many later settlers migrating to the Dan River Area knew little of William Byrd.

Many Scots also settled in the area, including the Galloway, Scales, Watt, Lenox, Campbell, and Moir families.

[citation needed] Following previous unsuccessful referendums, on September 12, 1967, residents of Leaksville, Draper, Spray, and the unincorporated Meadows Greens Sanitary District voted to consolidate their communities, 2,252 to 1,753 with 60 percent of eligible voters participating.

Of these, 784 elected to call the new city Eden, a term surveyor William Byrd II had used to describe the region in the 1700s.

[9] In the late 1990s and early 2000s the local economy suffered due to the closure of several textile mills- an expected byproduct of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

[11] The decline of textiles left the Miller Brewing Company's facility the town's flagship industry, but it announced its closure in 2015.

Changes and restructuring were affecting the textile industry throughout the South, as companies moved manufacturing operations to areas with cheaper labor, including offshore.

[45] Current council members For the 118th United States Congress, North Carolina's 6th congressional district is represented by Kathy Manning (D, Greensboro).

[47] The Leaksville-Draper-Spray Triplets was a former Minor League Baseball team combined from three separate towns in North Carolina.

Each year in September Eden host its annual Fall Riverfest, which celebrates the city's art, history, and river heritage.

[56] The Smith River Greenway is a walking trail consisted with the Smith River that is 1.5 miles long extending along the Eden Family YMCA located on Kennedy street and Island ford landing filled with plenty of interesting plants and wildlife found in the trail.

Local parking, picnic shelters, and restroom facilities are offered at the trailhead for visiting tourist.

Eden was featured in "The Amelia Earhart Story", the season 5 episode of the Netflix animated series BoJack Horseman.

One of the show's characters, Princess Carolyn, is from Eden and returns to her hometown in seeking an adoption from a local girl.