City Clinton, Davis County
A fully built grid city in the flat northwest corner of Davis County, with no freeway of its own
Clinton, Utah, the city that owns its name and little of its paperwork
Clinton is a fully built city of about 23,400 people in the flat northwest corner of Davis County, roughly ten miles south of Ogden and half an hour north of Salt Lake City. It is a grid city with no freeway of its own, and two of its plainest facts never show up on a listing: its street numbers and ZIP code belong to Clearfield next door, and the farm the town was settled on in the 1870s ended up inside Sunset. This is the hub for everything The Local has written about Clinton, from how it got its name to what an address here asks of a household.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
The short answer
Clinton is a fully built city of about 23,400 people in the flat northwest corner of Davis County, roughly ten miles south of Ogden and half an hour north of Salt Lake City. It is a grid city with no freeway of its own: two state routes, 1800 North and 2000 West, carry the traffic, and the West Davis Highway that opened in 2024 is reached through the interchange in neighboring West Point. Clinton is easiest to understand through two facts that never show up on a listing. Its street numbers and ZIP code belong to Clearfield next door, so a Clinton address reads Clearfield, UT 84015. And the farm the town was settled on in the 1870s ended up inside Sunset, the piece that broke away along the railroad in 1916. What is left is a city that owns its name and runs its own police and fire departments, keeps eleven parks and a rare permanent orienteering course, and fills six days of June with its Heritage Days celebration. This guide is the map to all of it.
Start here
The two facts that explain the rest of Clinton
Two things explain almost everything that looks odd about this city, and neither of them is on a listing. The first is the address. Clinton never set up a street grid of its own, so every house number here is measured from Clearfield's origin next door, and the mail, the ZIP code and most listing feeds all read Clearfield, UT 84015. It is a real city with its own mayor and its own departments, and its paperwork keeps printing the name of the town beside it. There is a whole page on what that means for a buyer, Whose Address Is This.
The second is historical. The settlement here started in the 1870s, when James Hill and his family farmed ground that was then part of Layton. The place answered to The Range, Sand Ridge, The Basin and The Summit before it took the name Clinton in 1896. Clinton and the settlement just east of it shared one ward until 1916, when that half broke away along the Union Pacific tracks and became Sunset. The tracks are still the city line, and the address the neighboring city now publishes for the Hill family farm sits inside Sunset. The founding page carries the full chain.
What is left is a city that owns its name and built the rest itself. It runs its own police department and its own fire department from a cluster of buildings on 1500 West, keeps eleven named parks and about three miles of measured walking loops, and turned ninety in 2026, ninety years after it became a town on 17 August 1936. For home prices, neighborhoods and the current market, the Clinton city guide is the place to look; this hub stays on the shape of the place.
Getting around
Two state routes and no freeway of its own
Clinton has no interstate and no interchange inside its limits, so two state routes do the work. 1800 North, signed SR-37, is the main east to west street; it is the same road that runs west out of Sunset's Main Street, and it carries more of that route number here than in any other city. 2000 West, signed SR-108, is the north to south retail street, and it becomes Antelope Drive once it reaches Syracuse, which is the road out to the Antelope Island causeway. The West Davis Highway, which opened in 2024 and runs down the west side of the county, is reached from Clinton through the interchange in neighboring West Point. When 2000 West backs up at rush hour, locals slide over to the quieter 3000 West and 1000 West grids.
| Drive from Clinton | Roughly | Off-peak time |
|---|---|---|
| Ogden center | 10 miles or so | 15 to 20 min |
| Hill AFB south gate | 5 miles or so | 10 to 15 min |
| FrontRunner at Clearfield | 4 miles or so | about 10 min |
| SLC International Airport | 25 miles or so | about 30 min |
| Salt Lake City center | 30 miles or so | 35 to 45 min |
These are off-peak drive estimates from the middle of Clinton; a weekday commute runs longer, so check current conditions.
History
From four working names to a ninetieth birthday
Laid out in order, the sequence is simple. The area was settled in the 1870s and went by The Range, Sand Ridge, The Basin and The Summit. It took the name Clinton in 1896, the same year it was joined with the settlement to its east in a single ward. In 1916 that ward split, and the eastern half separated along the railroad tracks to become Sunset. Clinton became an official town in 1936, a year after the piece that had broken away from it. The neat way to hold all of it: Clinton is the older name, and Sunset is the older city.
The city grew late and fast. It counted 670 people in 1950 and did not have a police department of its own until about 1969. The steepest stretch came in the 1990s, when the population roughly doubled, and the land ran out not long after. Today it is essentially full, at about 23,400 people on six square miles, which makes it one of the more tightly built cities on this side of the county. It marked its ninetieth in 2026, ninety years to the month after it incorporated on 17 August 1936.
One detail sits underneath the whole story. Clinton's own history page tells the settlement part but says almost nothing about 1896, 1916 or the split; the fuller account lives across the tracks, in Sunset's planning documents, and the founding page sets the two halves side by side. The city's oldest recorded building, a school from 1885, stood just south of the cemetery in the higher southeast corner, which is still where the older part of town sits.
Clinton is the older name, and Sunset is the older city. The parent town incorporated the year after the piece that broke away from it.
The county
The Davis County subjects a Clinton address actually reaches
A few Davis County subjects are big enough that The Local covers each once for the whole county. From Clinton, three of them are worth the drive, and it is worth being honest about how strong each connection is.
Through the pond
The lakeside parks
Pond by pond across the county. Clinton's own storm-fed fishing pond is one of them, and this is the page that ties them together.
Read the guide
Through a state route
Antelope Island
The island, the bison and the causeway drive, reached from the same SR-108 that runs through Clinton as 2000 West.
Read the guide
About ten minutes east
Hill Air Force Base
The base as a place and an economy, with the gates, the aerospace museum and the noise it puts over this end of the county.
Read the guideThe county's other subjects have no honest tie to a Clinton address. There is no canyon, bench or mountain trailhead inside the city; the nearest canyon mouth belongs to Layton. The Legacy Parkway Trail runs through cities at the south end of the county, and the county birding is anchored on Farmington Bay, well south of here. The Davis County hub indexes all of them so the choice stays yours.
If you only have a day
A compass course, a storm-fed pond, a rail trail and a week in June
First thing
Print the map
A permanent orienteering course set in a neighborhood park, with nine markers and printable course sheets. Free, and about an hour.
The compass page
Mid morning
Walk the pond
A short loop around the only water in the city, a basin Clinton built to catch storm water and fills through a pipe. Stocked for community fishing.
The pond page
Midday
Find the trail
The old Denver and Rio Grande rail corridor, now a trail that threads three city parks along the 1000 West line, beside an 1884 canal.
The paths page
Time it for June
Catch Heritage Days
The city's celebration runs six days across five venues, including a swim night it holds across the county line in Roy for want of a pool of its own.
The June pageThe year
One booking morning in January, and a week the city arranges itself around in June
The most useful civic fact in Clinton is a booking rule. The city opens its whole season of pavilion reservations on the first working day of January, months before the rental season itself runs, which is roughly the middle of April to the middle of October. A household deciding in May which Saturday it wants for a park pavilion has usually missed it by four months.
June is the week the city arranges itself around. Heritage Days runs six days rather than a weekend, across five separate venues, and not all of them are in Clinton: because the city has no pool of its own, the celebration's swim night is held at the Roy Aquatic Center across the county line in Weber County. The June week page carries the venues and the shape of it. The rest of the year is quieter and mostly outdoors, with a scattering of city-run seasonal events, a fall walk, a Thanksgiving-week fun run and a December gathering, published on the city's own calendar rather than any listing site.
Event dates, fees and rules are set by the city year by year and they move. Check the current details at clintoncity.net or by phone before you plan around any of them. The city also publishes its office hours two ways that do not quite agree, which is a fair reminder that a website this size is kept up in pieces.
The Clinton companion
Eight pages on the city itself
Everything The Local has written about Clinton: the ranked things to do, the founding and the split, the address that belongs to another town, the six-day June week, the storm-fed pond, the orienteering course, the rail trail and canal, and what an address here asks of a household.
The ranked list
The top 7 things to do
Read
The founding
The Summit That Became Clinton
Read
The address
Whose Address Is This
ReadThe big week
Six Days in June
ReadThe water
The Clinton Pond
ReadThe compass
The Orienteering Course
ReadThe paths
The Rail Trail and the Canal
Read
Moving here
Moving to Clinton
Read
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
Quick answers
Clinton, answered
That is a personal call, so here are the facts to weigh. Clinton is a fully built city of about 23,400 people on roughly six square miles of flat ground in the northwest corner of Davis County. It runs its own police and fire departments, keeps eleven named parks and about three miles of walking loops, and sits about ten miles south of Ogden and half an hour north of Salt Lake City. There is no freeway inside the city, so two state routes, 1800 North and 2000 West, carry most of the traffic. The housing is mostly newer suburban building on a numbered grid. For anything about home prices and the market, see the Clinton city guide.
Because Clinton borrows Clearfield's street grid and ZIP code. Clinton is its own city with its own mayor, police and fire departments, but it never set up an address system of its own, so its house numbers are measured from Clearfield's origin next door, and every Clinton address reads Clearfield, UT 84015. You will see Clearfield on insurance quotes, delivery apps and listing feeds for a home that is unambiguously in Clinton. It is not a mistake, and it does not change which city you live in. There is a full page on it, Whose Address Is This.
No, it runs down the west side of the county just outside Clinton. The West Davis Highway opened in 2024, and Clinton reaches it through the interchange in neighboring West Point rather than from an on-ramp of its own. Clinton has no interstate and no interchange inside its limits at all. Inside the city, the two state routes are 1800 North, signed SR-37, running east to west, and 2000 West, signed SR-108, running north to south.
For being a quiet, fully built west-Davis grid city that runs its own police and fire departments and keeps an unusual set of parks. Heritage Park holds a permanent orienteering course with printable maps, the Clinton Pond is a stocked community fishing pond the city built to catch storm water, and the city fills six days of June with its Heritage Days celebration across five venues. It is also the city whose founding farm ended up in neighboring Sunset after the two split along the railroad in 1916.
The settlement dates from the 1870s and the city from 1936. James Hill and his family settled ground that was then part of Layton, and the area went by The Range, Sand Ridge, The Basin and The Summit before it took the name Clinton in 1896. Clinton and the settlement to its east shared one ward until 1916, when that half broke away along the railroad tracks and became Sunset. Clinton became a town on 17 August 1936 and marked its ninetieth in 2026.
Most of it is outdoors and free. Heritage Park has a permanent orienteering course you can run any time with a printed map, the Clinton Pond has a short loop and community fishing, and the old Denver and Rio Grande rail corridor is now a trail that threads three city parks along the 1000 West line, beside an 1884 canal. Eleven named parks share about three miles of measured walking loops. Once a year the city runs its Heritage Days over six days in June. The ranked rundown is on the top 7 things to do.
About 30 miles, which is roughly a 35 minute drive south when traffic is light. Ogden is closer, about 10 miles and 15 to 20 minutes north. Hill Air Force Base's nearest gate is about five miles away, and the Clearfield FrontRunner station, the nearest commuter rail stop, is about four miles from the middle of Clinton. With no freeway inside the city, most trips start on one of the two state routes.
Yes, both, from a cluster of buildings on 1500 West on the north side of town. That sets Clinton apart from neighboring Sunset, which contracts its fire service out. Clinton was slower to build up than its size suggests: it incorporated in 1936 but did not have a police department until about 1969, when the whole town was still under a thousand people. After hours, non-emergency calls route to Davis County Dispatch.
No. Clinton's secondary irrigation water is run by a private utility, the Davis and Weber Counties Canal Company, not by the city, so a household here can end up with two water bills from two organizations. The city's own page mostly warns residents never to cross-connect the irrigation piping to the drinking water, and points to the canal company for the rest. Whether a specific home is connected is worth asking about at that address rather than assuming.
Weighing an address in Clinton, or anywhere in Davis County?
Clinton asks a buyer a short, specific set of questions, and most of them are not the ones a listing answers. How near is the north edge, where the county, the ZIP code and the school district can change within a block. Does the home have a secondary irrigation connection, given the city does not run that system. And what do the two state routes sound like from that street at four in the afternoon. Tell me what you are weighing, and I will connect you with a Davis County partner agent who works this corner of the county, and stay on the file for the financing side.
Or call Scott: (435) 357-4345or send Scott a message
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