Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Colma, CA

Colma is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County on the San Francisco Peninsula, and its name comes from an Ohlone word for 'springs.'

Colma is famous as a necropolis — a 'City of Souls' — because roughly three-quarters of its 2.2 square miles is taken up by 17 cemeteries, including a pet cemetery.

The dead in Colma outnumber the living by nearly a thousand to one: an estimated 1.5 million people are buried there, compared with a living population of just 1,507 at the 2020 census.

Colma exists because San Francisco banned new burials and ordered its cemeteries removed in the early 1900s; between about 1920 and 1941, some 150,000 bodies were relocated from San Francisco to Colma.

The town was incorporated on August 5, 1924, under the name Lawndale, largely at the urging of the cemetery associations, and in December 1941 it changed its name back to Colma.

Colma's first cemetery, Holy Cross Cemetery, was established by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese on June 3, 1887.

Colma is the final resting place of Western lawman Wyatt Earp, buried at Hills of Eternity Memorial Park, and baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, buried at Holy Cross Cemetery.

Colma is the smallest city in San Mateo County, and Census data put it at only about 480 households, with an average household size of just over three people.

Despite its tiny living population, Colma supports a strong retail tax base with two shopping centers along El Camino Real, which passes through the town.

The Town of Colma celebrated its centennial in 2024, marking 100 years since its 1924 incorporation.