Clovis

Clovis, New Mexico is located in the eastern part of the state. It is located in Curry County where it also serves as the county seat. It is the major city within the Clovis Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The largely agricultural community is situated on the mesa called Llano Estacado. The Cannon Air Force Base is situated within Clovis. The city is also noted for its part during early rock music history.

During prehistoric times, the peoples of the Clovis culture settled the eastern New Mexico region. Some anthropologically significant remains have been located at the Blackwater Draw site located south of Clovis, near Portales. Tourists are welcome to visit this historical site.

The city of Clovis was truly established back in the year 1906, when several Santa Fe Railroad engineers selected this site for a townsite. It was named "Santa Fe Railroad." The station master's daughter renamed it Clovis after the first Catholic king of the Franks.

Agriculture and ranching has dominated the entire west Texas and east-central New Mexico regions. The main industries within the area are production of peanuts, cotton farming and cattle ranching. The Clovis area has several processing plants for agricultural products, like for instance the Southwest Cheese Company plant that processes milk from local dairies. Located between Portales and Clovis, the plant opened during the year 2005 and provides jobs to over 200 area residents. This big plant processes into cheese over 2.3 billion pounds of milk on an annual basis.

A huge number of jobs are found in the services sector, with Allsup's convenience store headquarters as the largest employer. The local Dillard's and Wal-Mart stores, together with smaller regional and national supermarket chains, provide many residents with employment. Rail operations and transport have a lesser but still important impact on the local economy. The business and financial needs of the city are met by institutions like Wells Fargo, Bank of America and regional financial institutions.

Clovis has fought to keep the Cannon Air Force Base in operation throughout the years. The Committee of Fifty is a local lobby group established to keep Cannon AFB open. Their efforts resulted in a realignment of Cannon as a special operations base.