Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Near Upper Highlands Freedom, CA

Freedom is a small unincorporated census-designated place in Santa Cruz County, California, that blends seamlessly into the neighboring city of Watsonville and shares its 95076 ZIP code.

Freedom was originally called Whiskey Hill, a name earned in 1852 when the settlement reportedly had eleven saloons and a rough reputation for violence and bull-and-bear fights.

In 1877, as the saloons closed and temperance sentiment swept the country after the Centennial, residents voted to rename Whiskey Hill to Freedom.

The US Census counted 3,835 people in Freedom in 2020, up from 3,070 in 2010, after the community's counted population had shrunk sharply from 8,361 in the 1990 census.

The Santa Cruz County library system's demographic summary counted 773 households in Freedom in the 2010 census, and its households are unusually large, averaging close to four people.

About 71% of Freedom's residents are Hispanic or Latino, reflecting the community's deep roots in the Pajaro Valley's farm workforce.

Freedom has a higher share of residents working in farming, forestry and fishing than more than 95% of American neighborhoods, a sign of its agricultural setting outside Watsonville.

Local landmarks are Freedom Elementary School and the Freedom Branch Library, and the community first appeared in the census as an unincorporated place in 1950 and as a census-designated place in 1980.