Cloverdale, California

How many people know that Cloverdale, BC has a sister city?

Its Cloverdale, California.

When I was 9 years old my family travelled to Cloverdale, California with a gift from Cloverdale, Surrey, BC. Strapped to the roof of our red Buick Skylark was a good sized wooden crate. Inside was an equally good sized paper mache beaver. Sonny Beaver to be precise.

I'm sure most of us have seen the "Welcome to Surrey" signs as soon as you cross the boundary from Langley or Delta and they have a beaver on it, city mascot animal.

Today it might be a little more difficult crossing the US border with a wooden crate on the roof of the car but back then it was no problem. We delivered the beaver to Cloverdale, California which is located in the wine country, Sonoma County, about 30 miles from Santa Rosa.

In exchange, the following year, a contingency of Cloverdale, Californians brought up a paper mache orange.

I believe the sister city thing was arranged by the Board of Trade in both Cloverdales. Back in the 70's it was pretty active. Every other year in February, a bunch of Cloverdale, BC'ers would drive down to Cloverdale, California to attend the citrus fair. On the alternate year the Cloverdale, Californians would drive up here to attend the rodeo.

There was always a big party up here whenever the Californians arrived. My parents had a large basement set up for entertaining so quite often the "welcome" party was held at our house.

It was a rather interesting group of people and although I never was able to attend the citrus fair because my parents wouldn't take me out of school, they often went down over the years and I loved it when they visited for the rodeo. We often had guests stay at our house or parking their campers in our driveway.

As happens to all good things, the sister city exchange eventually fell by the wayside, though friends were made and continued to visit over the years. My father still keeps in touch with one couple from back in the sister city exchange days. They no longer live in Cloverdale but nearby still in the Sonoma Valley. That's too bad the board of trades in both towns didn't keep this active. I would be interested in being part of a convoy driving down to California for the citrus fair.

As for the last time I visited Cloverdale, California, that had to be back in 1992. That's the last time I recall driving down the coastal route, Highway 101. Just a brief stop on the journey.

Maybe its time to play another trip.

For more information on our long lost sister, please see the Cloverdale California website.

Click here for more information on the Citrus Fair.