![]() The lumber mill and yard had its own network of rails to move lumber around the yard and to connect with the SJVRR just south of Clovis station. As lumber was rough-cut at the mill, it was loaded into the flume and propelled by water to a planing mill east of the Clovis railroad station, where the Clovis Rodeo and Clark Intermediate School sit today. They then constructed a 42-mile (68 km), 25-foot-high (7.6 m), V-shaped flume that started at the foot of the dam. A dam was built across Stevenson Creek to create a lake that would enable them to move freshly cut timber to a mill beside the lake. By reducing the railroad's schedule of operation and trimming costs, the Southern Pacific was able to turn a small profit in the first years after its acquisition.Īt the same time that the railroad was being planned, a group of Michigan lumbermen began acquiring thousands of acres of timber in the Sierra Nevada about 75 miles (121 km) northeast of Fresno. The SJVRR was unable to generate sufficient revenues to pay its debt, was leased to the Southern Pacific Railroad and subsequently bought by SPRR in 1893. Farmers were unable to get a profitable return on their crops, banks and railroads failed nationwide. The first year of operation of the railroad coincided with the beginnings of a deep national economic decline. The railroad began official operation in January 1892. A celebration of the completion of track-laying was held at the Pollasky terminus on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving of 1891 with a reported 3,000 Fresnans attending. ![]() At the time, Hamptonville was called "Pollasky". Articles of Incorporation for the San Joaquin Valley Railroad indicate that the corporation intended to build 100 miles (160 km) of track, including sidings and spurs, through the agricultural acreage east of Fresno, then north to the timber and mineral resources of the Sierra foothills. The railroad was completed as far as the town of Hamptonville (now Friant) on the banks of the San Joaquin River, just 26 miles (42 km) from its point of origin in Fresno. The townsite, named "Clovis" after Clovis Station by Pollasky, was laid out on what was originally Owen's land. The original townsite featured streets named for the officers and principal investors of the railroad: (Benjamin) Woodworth, (Marcus) Pollasky, Fulton (Berry), (Thomas) Hughes, (Gerald) Osmun, and (O. Fresno civil engineer Ingvart Tielman mapped the townsite on behalf of Pollasky on December 29, 1891. The railroad agreed to establish a station on the west side of the tracks and to call it "Clovis." The Clovis station, which was named after Clovis Cole, was positioned on the Owen side of the track.Ĭole and Owen later sold land to Marcus Pollasky for the development of a townsite. The railroad purchased right-of-way from both farmers, half from each – the east side from Cole and the west side from Owen – and ran tracks up the borderline between the two properties. ![]() Cole and George Owen by October of that year. Williams, in partnership with Michigan railroad speculator Marcus Pollasky, the SJVRR began construction in Fresno on July 4, 1891, and reached the farmlands of Clovis M. ![]() Organized on January 15, 1890, by Fresno businessmen Thomas E. ![]() The city of Clovis began as a freight stop along the San Joaquin Valley Railroad. ( May 2013) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This section needs additional citations for verification. ![]()
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