A largely agricultural community, closely bordering Texas, it is noted for its role in early rock music history and for nearby Cannon Air Force Base, current home to the 27th Special Operations Wing which is also known as "The Steadfast Line".

It is the principal city of the Clovis Micropolitan statistical area, which is part of the larger Clovis-Portales CSA.

The Eastern New Mexico region was home to the prehistoric Clovis culture, an anthropologically significant group of early Native Americans.

Clovis began in 1906, when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway was being constructed through the area and railway engineers were instructed to "locate and buy the first level section of land west of Texico" on which to build a town site and railroad facilities.

A likely-apocryphal story states that a daughter of a rail official (accounts vary whether her father was AT&SF president Edward Payson Ripley, chief engineer James Dunn, or an unnamed station master) was studying about Clovis, the first Christian king of the Franks, and proposed the name.

The Clovis Carver Public Library was the site of a mass shooting in August 2017 in which two people were killed and four wounded.

[13] In 2023, the FW1 Ute Reservoir pipeline project started construction to provide potable water by 2030 for Cannon Air Force Base and the communities of Clovis, Portales, Elida, and Texico.

[14] Clovis is located in southeastern Curry County at 34°24′17″N 103°12′19″W / 34.40472°N 103.20528°W / 34.40472; -103.20528 (34.4047987, -103.2052272), 9 miles (14 km) west of the Texas border.

Cannon Air Force Base, which is located 10 miles west of the city, has increased the wide variety of people throughout the past several years.

The plant commenced operations in late 2005 and provided a small boost to the local economy by employing over 200 personnel.

[23] In 1995, the Santa Fe was merged into the BNSF Railway, which operates a division point and large freight classification yard on its Southern Transcon at Clovis, with a dispatcher's office monitoring traffic over the Belen Cutoff.

This 235-mile (378 km) rail corridor is one of the most heavily trafficked routes in the western United States, often with more than 100 mostly intermodal freight trains arriving and leaving Clovis daily.

[24] The Southwestern Railroad, formerly the AT&SF Pecos Valley branch line, connects to the BNSF here, shipping potash from mines near Carlsbad.

In addition to the agricultural, military and railroading sectors, music has contributed to the economy of Clovis almost since the city originated.

Norman Petty Studio in Clovis is where several different artists have recorded; one of the most famous is Buddy Holly.

[26] Southwest, Spanish Mission, or Adobe architectural styles are prevalent, being considered representative of New Mexico.

The hotel was designed by architect Robert Merrill, combining an Art Deco exterior with Southwestern Indian interior.

The elegant ballroom hosted such names as Louis Armstrong, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, and Hank Williams, and the nearby train depot supplied the hotel with most of its business.

The hotel closed shortly after the Santa Fe Railroad discontinued passenger train service to Clovis in 1971.

[28] Performances including music and drama often take place at Clovis Community College, Eastern New Mexico University, and the Lyceum Auditorium, as well as at the Special Events Center, located adjacent to the county fairgrounds.

The Clovis Music Festival is, locally, a high-profile event held annually mid April.

Artists including Waylon Jennings, Charlie "Sugartime" Phillips, Bobby Fuller and Roy Orbison cut their earliest recordings at the studio.

[citation needed] The city served as the principal filming location for the 2016 movie Hell or High Water, which began shooting in May 2015.