Cloverdale is a city in Sonoma County, California, United States. Take a look below for 15 interesting and awesome facts about Cloverdale, California, United States.

1. The San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad reached Cloverdale in 1872.

2. The Cloverdale Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California is headquartered here.

3. The population was 8,618 at the 2010 census.

4. Cloverdale began as an early stagecoach stop, known as Markleville, on the Rancho Rincon de Musalacon Mexican grant. In 1856, R.B. Markle and W.J. Miller bought 759 acres (3.1 km2), which included the present site of the town, from Johnson Horrell.

5. In 1859, James Abram Kleiser bought Markle’s interest, and the town was laid out.

6. The town was incorporated when the San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad arrived in 1872.

7. By 1878, the railroad service provided three trains a day between Cloverdale and Ferries of San Francisco Bay.

8. In 1881, Jules Leroux and Armand Dehay established a colony south of Cloverdale named “Icaria Speranza”, based on the French Utopian movement, the Icarians.

9. The settlement ended in 1886 and today, there is a marker south of town where the schoolhouse was located.

10. Cloverdale suffered severe economic hardship, losing 500 to 600 manufacturing jobs between 1988 and 1994, with the closing of a fire equipment factory and the shrinking of the logging industry.

11. In 1993, 300 jobs were eliminated alone when Louisiana-Pacific closed its lumber mill. In 1994, Highway 101, which formerly bisected the town, was rerouted around town with a bypass. Some businesses closed, and many natives believed the bypass radically changed the town’s character.

12. Since the bypass, signs of civic revival have occurred with the development of pedestrian-friendly sidewalks, a performing arts center, a brewpub, and a downtown plaza hosting live concerts and a farmers’ market.

13. In 1997, Clover Springs, a development with 362 houses, was opened on the south end of town. In 2011, the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District transferred 250 acres (1.0 km2) of former ranchland to the City of Cloverdale for use as a park and open-space preserve.

14. The Cloverdale Rancheria of Pomo Indians is a landless federally recognized tribe with a membership of almost 500. In 2008, the Tribe acquired 80 acres (320,000 m2) at the southern end of town.

15. The Rancheria is a community of Pomo Indians who are indigenous to Sonoma County and speak the Southern Pomo language. Pomo people are renowned for their basket weaving, done by both men and women. Elsie Allen, considered to be one of the best California basketweavers of her generation, was a member of the Rancheria and spent part of her childhood there.