Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in San Ardo, CA

San Ardo is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Monterey County, California, located 18 miles southeast of King City in the Salinas Valley.

San Ardo was formerly known as San Bernardo, Spanish for 'St. Bernard'; the name was changed to San Ardo to avoid confusion with San Bernardino, California.

The town was laid out in 1887 by M.J. Brandenstein, owner of the San Bernardo land grant, when the railroad reached his land; the post office had opened as San Bernardo in 1886 and took the name San Ardo in 1887.

The 2020 United States census reported San Ardo's population as 392, down from 517 in 2010.

San Ardo has about 124 households averaging 3.16 people each, and only about 34.7% of its occupied homes are owner-occupied — most residents rent.

Hispanic or Latino residents made up 79.1% of San Ardo's population in the 2020 census, and the community is young, with a median age of 28.8 years.

San Ardo sits at an elevation of 449 feet on just 0.449 square miles, near where the broad Salinas Valley pinches out between the Santa Lucia Mountains and the Diablo Range, with the Salinas River flowing along its western side.

The huge San Ardo Oil Field lies about 5 miles south of town, and much of the local economy is based on agriculture, farming, ranching, and servicing the oil field.

The San Ardo Oil Field was discovered by the Texas Company in November 1947 and is the eighth-largest producing oil field in California, with an estimated ultimate recovery of about 532 million barrels of oil.

San Ardo has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, with warm, dry summers and no average monthly temperature above about 71.6 °F.