Montara History

Today, Montara, the first village south of Devil’s Slide, has a population of nearly 3,000 people. It was founded around the turn of the century on a portion of the old land grant, Rancho Corral de Tierra, by Harr Wagner, a San Francisco publisher. Wagner’s hopes of establishing an art colony foundered with the demise of the Ocean Shore Railroad in 1920 and serious fires of 1916 and 1920. Even the Sequoia gigantic planted by Joaquin Miller, “the poet of the Sierras,” who rode into town on the first passenger train soon died as did Wagner’s dream. Today Montara is home to writers, artists and other interesting folks.