Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Montara, CA

Montara is an unincorporated census-designated place on the San Mateo County coast, about 20 miles south of San Francisco, with a population of 2,833 at the 2020 census.

Montara's name is thought to be a corruption of Spanish words describing mountainous, wooded country — such as montuoso, montaraz, and montaña — and government surveyors first recorded the area as "Montoro" in 1867 before the Coast Survey used the current spelling in 1869.

Montara Mountain, part of the Santa Cruz Mountains, rises to 1,898 feet directly behind the community.

Point Montara Light was established in 1875 as a fog signal station after several ships ran ashore on this stretch of coast in the late 1860s.

The lighthouse tower standing at Point Montara today was originally built in 1881 in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, as the Mayo Beach Lighthouse; it was dismantled, shipped across the country, and rebuilt at Montara in 1928.

The Point Montara lighthouse station, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991, now hosts a Hostelling International youth hostel.

Montara is home to Montara State Beach, a popular surfing and beachcombing spot along Highway 1.

In 2003 the Montara Water and Sanitary District bought the community's water system back into local public ownership from the German industrial firm RWE.

The rare and endangered Hickman's potentilla plant grows on the slopes above Martini Creek at the northern edge of Montara.

At the 2010 census, Montara had 2,909 people living in about 1,109 households.