Cliff Davis
American politician (1908–1990)

Cliff Davis (January 31, 1908 – September 13, 1990) was an American politician who served as Speaker of the Wyoming House of Representatives and as mayor of Gillette, Wyoming, as a member of the Republican Party.
Davis was born in Thomas, Oklahoma, and his family homesteaded in Campbell County, Wyoming, in 1916. Their ranch grew to 4,485 acres and he operated multiple businesses. He served on the school board and county commission.
Davis served in the state house from 1957 to 1959, and 1961 to 1975. He served in multiple legislative leadership roles and defeated the incumbent mayor of Gillette in the 1970 election. He lost reelection to both the state house and mayoralty in 1974.
Early life
Cliff Davis was born in Thomas, Oklahoma, on January 31, 1908, to J. Fred Davis and Josepene Stokes. Davis' family came to Campbell County, Wyoming as homesteader ranchers north of Gillette in 1916. J. Fred initially planned on buying land, but learned, while 40 miles north of Gillette, that the banker he received the loan from died.
The public source identifies “Cliff Davis” as american politician (1908–1990). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Cliff, Davis and American.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q124313504. The first chronological checks are 1908, 1990, 1916 and 1957.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cliff Davis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.