Casmalia, California

Casmalia (Chumash: ''Kasma’li'', meaning "it is the last") is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Barbara County, California located just outside the borders of Vandenberg Air Force Base about southwest of Santa Maria. The ZIP Code is 93429, and the community is inside area code 805. The population was 138 at the 2010 census.

History

Casmalia is located on the 1840 Mexican land grant, Rancho Casmalia. The formal town was founded by Antonio Tognazzini in the mid-1890s and was then named Someo, after the village of origin of the Tognazzini family, Someo, Switzerland. When the post office was opened, however, it was named Casmalia, rather than Someo, because of a name conflict with another California town and the name, Someo, was eventually dropped.

The new railroad town soon swelled to more than 1500 people in its early years. 100 years later, that population had shrunk to less than 200 because of the Casmalia Resources Hazardous Waste Landfill facility. 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.

north of the town, this hazardous waste landfill began operating in 1973 and accepted toxic chemicals like PCBs, motor oil, and pesticides. In 1989, the facility was closed down following a number of permit violations. In 1992, it was taken over by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which began the process of cleaning up and administering the site.

The soil and groundwater at the site were significantly contaminated and the former dump became a Superfund site. During its operation, 5.6 billion pounds of hazardous waste from up to 10,000 individuals, businesses and government agencies were buried at the site.

The public area of the hotel built by Antonio Tognazzini and operated by Frank A. Vandoit more than 100 years ago still exists, although the guest rooms were torn down in 1944. The building is now occupied by The Hitching Post barbecue restaurant.

The superfund site still continues to be worked on over the hill.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP covers an area of 0.2 square miles (0.5 km²), all of it land.

Climate

This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Casmalia has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.

Demographics

The 2020 United States census reported that Casmalia had a population of 147. The population density was . The racial makeup of Casmalia was 95 (64.6%) White, 0 (0.0%) African American, 0 (0.0%) Native American, 8 (5.4%) Asian, 0 (0.0%) Pacific Islander, 25 (17.0%) from other races, and 19 (12.9%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 63 persons (42.9%).

The whole population lived in households. There were 46 households, out of which 23 (50.0%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 22 (47.8%) were married-couple households, 1 (2.2%) were cohabiting couple households, 12 (26.1%) had a female householder with no partner present, and 11 (23.9%) had a male householder with no partner present. 11 households (23.9%) were one person, and 7 (15.2%) were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 3.2. There were 30 families (65.2% of all households).

The age distribution was 38 people (25.9%) under the age of 18, 11 people (7.5%) aged 18 to 24, 39 people (26.5%) aged 25 to 44, 42 people (28.6%) aged 45 to 64, and 17 people (11.6%) who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 42.1years. There were 73 males and 74 females.

There were 53 housing units at an average density of , of which 46 (86.8%) were occupied. Of these, 27 (58.7%) were owner-occupied, and 19 (41.3%) were occupied by renters.

References

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Census-designated places in Santa Barbara County, California
Swiss-American history
Populated places established in the 1890s
Census-designated places in California