Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
I spent the best part of last week in Clovis, where I am taking on temporary editing duties for Clovis Media, the company that owns the Quay County Sun.
I live in Tucumcari and the contrast between the two communities is fascinating.
I am staying in one of the motels that line Mabry Drive on the east side of Clovis.
There is a steady stream of traffic on Mabry before, during and after regular business hours. Mabry is part of U.S. highways 60 and 84, which split at Texico, next to the Texas border.
Most of the traffic seems to be coming from or going to Texas.
At Texico, U.S. 60 splits off northeast toward Canyon, Texas, a 20-mile hop on Interstate 27 away from Amarillo, whose population in 2019 of 199,371, which is 9,000 more than it had in 2010.
U.S. 84 takes you southeast from Texico to Lubbock, 2019 population 258,862, nearly 30,000 more than it had in 2010.
Going west from Clovis, the traffic thins out at Melrose, and by the time you get to Vaughn, population 400, traffic is downright sparse.
Lubbock, Amarillo and Clovis are points on a triangle, with the Texas cities about equal distance from Clovis. The Texas roads are dotted with small towns. Toward Amarillo, there are feedlots, some meat-packing plants, and cattle-feed crops. Toward Lubbock, the towns serve cotton farms with big equipment and machinery needs.
Clovis had a population of about 38,300 in 2019. Its population grew by about 325 between 2010 and 2019. It doesn’t sound like much, but among its neighbors in New Mexico, Clovis seems to be the only place that gained population.
Tucumcari’s population was at 4,860 at last count. That’s down about 500 from the 2010 Census. It is 83 miles from Clovis, but there is little but open space in between.
In recent years, I have seen Clovis acquire a Towne Place hotel, a Planet Fitness outlet, a stand-alone Starbucks, and Buffalo Wild Wings and Chipotle franchises. Dion’s Pizza, a growing Albuquerque-based chain, is also building an outlet in Clovis.
Corporate retailers establish new locations only where they find a critical mass of households that will spend a little extra for dependable and desirable corporate amenities.
Clovis has both, due to Cannon Air Force Base and a dairy industry that requires considerable investment in capital equipment and people. It is also a hub for a number of Texas towns nearby.
Tucumcari, like the other cities in eastern New Mexico, has committed the economic crime of being rural.
You need people and money to attract people and money, and rural communities are losing both.
Rural is nice. Stagnation is not.
People are trying hard to pull Tucumcari up by its bootstraps.
They participate in MainStreet, run for city commission, serve on city boards, join service clubs and volunteer like crazy, even as their numbers dwindle.
Some day, I hope, investors will see the opportunities here, like land, location and a small but willing population, and maybe we’ll see a few more people and little more money spread out our way.
Steve Hansen writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at: