The town of Clovis started as a freight station town along the San Joaquin Valley Railroad which was organized in 1890, by using Fresno businessmen Fulton Berry, Thomas E. Hughes, H.D. Colson, Gilbert R. Osmun, William M. Williams, and John D. Gray, in partnership with Marcus Pollasky Michigan railroad speculator, the San Joaquin Valley Railroad started out creation in Fresno in July of 1891 and managed to spread to the farmlands of George Owen and Clovis Cole by October of 1891. The railroad bought right of way from each farmer, 1/2 from every person – the east aspect from Cole and the west aspect from Owen and ran tracks among the 2 areas. The railroad agreed to set up a station at the west side of the railroad tracks and name it Clovis station. This station, which the city is named after, turned into placed at the Owen side.

The railroad turned into finished just as far as Hamptonville which is now Friant which is located on the banks of the San Joaquin River which is simply 26 miles from its factor of starting place in Fresno. Articles of Incorporation for the San Joaquin Valley Railroad suggest that the agency intended to build a hundred miles of track, which include sidings and spurs, thru the rural acreage east of Fresno, then north to the wood and mineral resources of the Sierra foothills. During this time, Hamptonville was actually named Pollasky, and at the completion of track laying changed into being held on the Pollasky terminus on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving of 1891 with a suggested 3,000 Fresnans attending. The railroad commenced reputable operation in January 1892.

The primary 12 months of operation of this railroad had started to go with the deep depression of national history. Farmers have been not able to get any profit returned on the crops and railroads as well as banks failed all over the nation.

At the same time that the railroad changed into being planned, a group of Michigan lumbermen started out acquiring heaps of acres of timber in the Sierra Nevada approximately 75 miles northeast of Fresno. A dam become constructed throughout Stevenson Creek to create a lake that would permit them to move freshly reduce wooden to a mill beside the lake. They then constructed a forty two-mile V-formed flume that began on the foot of the dam. As lumber changed into difficult-cut on the mill, it became loaded into the flume and propelled with the aid of water to a planning mill east of the Clovis station. The mill had its personal community of rails to transport lumber across the backyard and to connect with the SJVRR simply south of Clovis station.

The final touch in 1894 of the lumber flume and graduation of mill operations supplied the impetus for further improvement of the region around the Clovis Station. The city commenced to take form as lumber yard employees constructed houses near their employment. carrier corporations, churches, and colleges have become necessary, and the city turned into all started.

Clovis become integrated as a city in February 1912. principal streets in the town middle were named for the railroad’s officers. Fulton avenue, become later named front street, then predominant street, and is now Clovis avenue.

Many buildings inside the city middle were renovated. The older storefronts that are located on Clovis Road which is the primary avenue strolling thru city, have been restored and new homes were designed with facades that look like the ones discovered in the start of the town. The historic middle has been called Old Town.