24/7 Biohazard and Crime Scene Cleanup in Casmalia, CA

Casmalia is a census-designated place in Santa Barbara County, located just outside the borders of Vandenberg Air Force Base, approximately 5 miles southwest of Santa Maria.

Its name comes from the Chumash word Kasma'li, meaning 'it is the last,' and the community sits on Rancho Casmalia, an 1840 Mexican land grant.

The formal town was founded in the mid-1890s by Antonio Tognazzini, who named it Someo after his family's home village in Switzerland - but the post office was named Casmalia because of a name conflict with another California town, and 'Someo' was eventually dropped.

The new railroad town soon swelled to more than 1,500 people in its early years.

During the heyday of the Casmalia Oil Field, the present town served as the red light district for the Union Oil Company workers who lived in the nearby Casmalia Hills.

The public area of the hotel built by founder Antonio Tognazzini more than 100 years ago still stands in town, now occupied by The Hitching Post barbecue restaurant, although the guest rooms were torn down in 1944.

Just 1.2 miles north of town, the 252-acre Casmalia Resources hazardous waste landfill accepted some 5.6 billion pounds of hazardous waste before closing in 1989; the EPA took it over in 1992 and it remains a Superfund cleanup site.

Casmalia packs its population into just 0.17 square miles, giving this tiny community a density of about 875 people per square mile.

Casmalia had a population of 147 at the 2020 census, up from 138 in 2010, and its residents lived in 46 households averaging a large 3.2 people each, with about 43% of residents Hispanic or Latino.

Casmalia has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 degrees Fahrenheit.