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

Oceano is an unincorporated census-designated place in San Luis Obispo County, and its name is simply the Spanish word Océano, meaning "Ocean."

Oceano had a population of 7,183 at the 2020 census, down slightly from 7,286 at the 2010 census, spread across 2,653 households.

Oceano is part of the Five Cities metropolitan area on California's Central Coast and covers only about 1.5 square miles.

Oceano's beach is the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area, a 1,500-acre coastal sand dune that is the only California state park where visitors may drive vehicles on the beach.

The dunes at Oceano belong to the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes complex, the largest remaining dune system south of San Francisco and the second largest in California, stretching some 18 miles along the coast.

Oceano began as part of the Rancho El Pismo Mexican land grant of 1840; its name first appeared on a map in 1893, and it was promoted as a beach resort after the Southern Pacific Railroad arrived in 1895.

In the early 1900s Oceano was the point of entry for the "Dunites," a colony of artists, writers and poets who lived in the sand dunes south of town.

The environs of Oceano were home to Halcyon, a utopian religious community established in 1903 by the theosophical Temple of the People, which built the Blue Star Memorial Temple and the Halcyon Hotel and Sanatorium.

In 1948 Oceano was the founding site of the U.S. Vegan Society, the first vegan society in the United States, established by Catherine Nimmo and Rubin Abramowitz.

Oceano is served by the Lucia Mar Unified School District, and its small Oceano County Airport covers 58 acres of general-aviation field within walking distance of the dunes.