In 1962, Turk Island Rubbish Disposal Area opened on Union City Blvd, just south of Alvarado. To locals, it was simple known as Turk Island Dump, a place to take junk, trash, or whatever, from around your house and get rid of it. The entrance to the dump was south of Hall Ranch Road, now Dyer.
The name Turk Island is also shared with the Turk Island Salt Works, which operated around the area where the dump was located. There is a small hill just north of Coyote Hills that was given the name Turk Island. This hill was an island in the sea that was the salt flats. It is unclear if the hill was given the name first, or if it derived it's name from the salt works.
Growing up in Hayward, there are many weekends where I helped my Step-Father load an El Camino pickup with junk and head off to Turk Island. One of the major rules when visiting Turk Island was no scavenging. You could not take anything home with you. They had employees roaming the areas with fresh trash, looking for items that had some resale value. I remember seeing some old bicycles that there pulled from the heaps before the bulldozers moved it and flattened it. The worst part of the dump was the smell. If you've ever driven by northern Milpitas and smelled that dump, then you know what Turk Island smelled like.
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Turk Island closed in 1986. To keep the contents safe from the environment, the dump was capped with a layer of dirt, forming a protective barrier over the refuse. Although it has been closed for more than 25 years, the site is still maintain and monitored for any runoff that could affect the environment. The California Regional Water Quality Control Board reviews the site and generated a report back in 2012.
In 2001 and 2006, the owners of Turk Island proposed turn it in to a city park as long as they were allowed to build homes on a small part of the dump. Since there is no park there, obviously these proposals did not go forth.