Eden is the largest city in Rockingham County, NC — a Piedmont river city built where the Smith River flows into the Dan, just south of the Virginia line. Its name is older than the city itself: in the 1700s, the surveyor and writer William Byrd II passed through this river country and called it a “Land of Eden.” When three separate mill towns finally united in 1967, they revived the name Byrd had given the land more than two centuries earlier.
Those three towns — Leaksville, Spray, and Draper — each grew up around the rivers and the textile industry, and each prospered in its own way. Leaksville, laid out by John Leak in 1795 on a bluff above the Dan, began as a river-trade market between Virginia and North Carolina. Spray rose downstream, harnessing the Smith River’s waterpower for its mills. Draper developed a few miles east as a railroad textile town.
For most of a century, the Fieldcrest textile empire — sheets, blankets, and bedspreads — anchored the local economy and employed thousands. But Eden’s most famous product was the Karastan rug. Beginning in 1928, a modified Axminster loom at the Eden plant produced machine-made Oriental-style rugs so convincing the trade press called them “Mystery Rugs.” Karastan proved their durability with a legendary stunt, inviting millions of visitors to walk across a rug at the 1930s World’s Fairs, and the rugs went on to grace the White House, the Biltmore House, and JFK Airport. Wool Karastan rugs were made in Eden all the way until 2021 — long after the last major textile plant closed in 2003.
Modern Eden leans into its rivers. The Dan and Smith draw paddlers, anglers, and cyclists; the 2.6-mile Smith River Greenway offers a walkable natural corridor; and the annual RiverFest each September celebrates the waterways that gave the city its name and its livelihood. The Matrimony Creek Nature Trail ties the two halves of Eden’s story together nicely — a roughly one-mile walk along the creek that ends at a waterfall beside the ruins of the old Leaksville Mill, a quiet reminder of the water-powered industry that built the city.
For the fuller story, the Eden Historical Museum, a storefront museum in the uptown district, preserves the area’s textile and community history — including a Karastan rug of its own — and makes a good first stop for understanding how three mill towns became one. We’ve enjoyed exploring Eden’s uptown districts and its local businesses — check out some of what we got up to below.
Photos of Uptown Eden
Things to do in Eden, NC
