Thanks for the memories

The Clovis Independent proudly captures your way of life for 103 years

Students at Woods Elementary celebrate the school's opening in 2005. The Clovis Independent has covered dozens of new campus openings as Clovis Unified School District has grown to include five high schools, five intermediate schools and 31 elementary schools since it unified in 1960.

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This is our story.

This is the story of a newspaper that for 103 years has captured Clovis people going about their daily lives, putting their heart into the things in which they believe, making sometimes difficult decisions and forging relationships with friends and neighbors.

This is also your story.

This is the story of the history of our town and the explanation for our way of life.

Before printing the final pages of The Clovis Independent today, we want to celebrate with you some of the cherished moments of our many years together, and we want to thank you for letting us be a part of your lives.

Through the years, we have literally covered thousands of city council and school board meetings, attended tens-of-thousands of football, basketball, baseball and softball games and photographed hundreds-of-thousands of images of Clovis people and events.

We were there in 1912 when the township of Clovis with a population of roughly 1,000 voted to become a city and elected its first officers of the Board of Trustees (predecessors to today's Clovis City Council).

We touted in a big headline in 1920 "Handsome High School Building is Finished. Well Designed. Construction Good" referring to the completion of the new Clovis Union High School designed by a San Francisco architect.

In 1924, we covered the city's biggest armed robbery at First State Bank in which Felix "The Lone Wolf" Sloper and accomplice Thomas "The Owl" Griffin stole $31,800 on Feb. 5 and locked the banker in the safe. (The crime is re-enacted annually at the Clovis Museum, which is located at the bank's original site.)

Throughout our many pages, there were stories about World War I and II, Pearl Harbor and 800 Japanese locals being sent to interment camps. "It may be a long, hard war, that will call for many sacrifices, but WE MUST WIN IT," wrote editor M.A. Hinkley in 1941.

The newspapers of the late 1940s and 1950s reflect pivotal turning points in what was then a prospering city of roughly 3,000. A photo shows Mayor Wayne Rall making the first phone call to launch the beginning of rotary telephone service. A new sewer plant opened, grandstand seating was built at the Clovis Rodeo arena, home delivery of mail began, the first female officer joined the Clovis Police Department and the city's first Little League formed. "It is to build good citizens and good Americans. In Little League, each boy ... finds that the other boy, regardless of race, creed or color, is a pretty nice guy after all," wrote The Independent.

And then came what may arguably be one of the biggest stories that permanently changed the future of Clovis. On Christmas Eve 1959, the story -- so big it was printed above the newspaper's flag -- was the Dec. 22 decision to bring six school districts together with Clovis Union High to form the Clovis Unified School District.

"Some 1,750 voters in the Clovis Union High School District took time off from their Christmas shopping Tuesday to cast their ballots in favor of unification by a whopping 4 to 1 margin," the story began. And a man named Dr. Floyd Buchanan became the new district's first superintendent.

From a high school sports page in the 1950s that told of golden quarterback Daryle Lamonica's talent to a four-page spread in 2007 about the opening of Clovis North Educational Center -- Clovis Unified and its growing student population, its new schools and its academic and athletic successes have dominated The Clovis Independent ever since.

With the formation of Clovis Unified, the city's true population expansion began. Clovis grew. And grew. And grew. And The Clovis Independent was there each step of the way as a population of 5,546 people in 1960 became 13,586 in 1970; 32,529 in 1980; 49,299 in 1990; and 70,746 in 2000.

We were there as amenities of growth occurred. Sierra Vista Mall opened Oct. 12, 1988, and Clovis Community Hospital's new multi-million dollar facility opened on Herndon Avenue later that same year. Old Town Clovis was reinvented with new streetscape and design. The housing market exploded. New businesses, such as Pelco, located here. And, in 1999, with decades of planning behind it, Freeway 168 opened to traffic connecting Clovis directly with downtown Fresno, spurring on further expansion.

The more recent editions of The Clovis Independent now cover the challenges and repercussions of growth. But war and its effect have also crept back into the news pages. Clovis has lost several members of the military during the conflicts in the Middle East. But this community, this special community, has held hands with strangers in prayer, stood in salute along funeral processions and gathered by the hundreds at vigils to show support for the fallen and their families.

For 103 years, we have covered elections, parades, graduations, scandals, funerals, development, crime and new schools. We have watched Clovis grow up from its infancy. We have seen it change from a sleepy farm town to a thriving city.

But there is one thing we have seen that has and, we hope, will continue to remain the same. The fortitude and good will of the citizens set the tone for a town with vision and strong character. People are the true soul of this community.

It has been our great honor to share our stories, your stories, throughout these many wonderful years. Thank you for letting us into your lives.