San Mateo

San Mateo is a small unincorporated community in Putnam County, just south of East Palatka along Highway 17. Quiet, rural, and easy to drive past without noticing — but San Mateo has been here since the 1880s, founded by a group of Spanish-American settlers who named it for the apostle Matthew.

There's not a lot of commercial activity in San Mateo itself, but a handful of family-run operations make their home here, and the back roads through the area are some of the prettier drives in this part of the river country. If you're moving between Palatka and Welaka along the 17 corridor, you'll pass through San Mateo. The community is included in this directory for completeness — smaller listing counts than the larger towns, but every bit of the St. Johns River story belongs here.