Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Oakley, CA

Oakley was incorporated on July 1, 1999, making it the newest incorporated city in Contra Costa County and one of the youngest cities in California.

Oakley's official slogan is "A Place for Families in the Heart of the Delta," reflecting its position at the edge of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in eastern Contra Costa County.

Oakley's name was decided by a game of cribbage: founder Randolph C. Marsh wanted to call the town Dewey, after Admiral George Dewey of the Spanish-American War, but his friend Joel D. Wightman preferred Oakley - and Wightman won the game.

The name itself means "meadow of oak trees," from "oak" plus the Old English "-ley," meaning a field or meadow.

Marsh consoled himself by choosing downtown street names whose first initials spell out his surname: Main, Acme, Ruby, Star, and Home - M-A-R-S-H.

Marsh also became Oakley's first postmaster, receiving his commission on September 7, 1898, and the first letter ever addressed to Oakley, California, two days later.

The land under Oakley was part of Rancho Los Meganos, a Mexican land grant made to Don Jose Noriega in 1835.

Long before that, the Bay Miwok people occupied the Oakley region, roughly from 1100 to 1770 AD.

Portuguese and Italian families shaped Oakley through grape farming beginning in the late 1800s, and its landscape of orchards and vineyards still reflects its Delta farming-town past.

Oakley's students attend Freedom High School, the city's main public high school.