Lubbock County
Lubbock County...gotta LOVE it!
Events to attend: 4th on Broadway, Fiestas Patrias, Lubbock Arts Festival, Lubbock Music Festival, National Cowboy Symposium & Celebration, Viva Asitlan Festival, St. Joseph's Sausage Festival (Slaton), The Simpson's Maze/Altido Farms.
Sites to see: County Courthouse, American Museum of Agriculture, American Wind Power Center, Buddy Holly Center, City of Lubbock Cemetery, Footprints of History Memorial, Lubbock Lake Landmark, Museum of Texas Tech niversity, National Ranching Heritage Center, Omni Theater and Science Spectrum Museum, Silent Wings Museum, Slaton Railroad Heritage Association and Slaton Harvey House, Stubb Memorial, Texas Air Museum, Moonlight Musicals, Brick Town
MORE ABOUT LUBBOCK COUNTY
With a population of over 250,000, Lubbock County is the largest metropolitan area in the Texas Plains Trail Region. The city of Lubbock occupies the center of the county and is surrounded by the towns of Shallowater, New Deal, Idalou, and Abernathy to the north and Wolfforth, Slaton, and Ransom Canyon to the south. The vistas of Lubbock County include the fabled wide-open spaces of the Plains in the north and west that drop suddenly into canyons in the southeast.
The history of Lubbock County is a microcosm of the history of the region. Formally organized in 1891, the county’s population had reached only 293 by 1900. But after the turn of the 20th Century, the population expanded rapidly as large ranches were broken into smaller tracts to attract developers and farmers. Fertile soil and cheap land attracted thousands of new settlers. Today, Lubbock County is the center of a vast agricultural area on the Southern High Plains that produces cotton, grain, peanuts, and sunflowers.
Although Lubbock County has been permanently settled for only just over a century, it is a place with a twelve thousand year history of human occupation. Museums, historic sites, and numerous festivals in the County chronicle and celebrate such diverse themes as early man, Native Americans, ranching, windmills, music, paleontology, art, agriculture, military and aviation history and the area’s railroad heritage. The County’s newest attraction is the restored Harvey House adjacent to the railroad tracks in Slaton, due to open in the spring of 2006.
The county of Lubbock was founded in 1876, named after Thomas Saltus Lubbock, a Confederate colonel and member of the Terry's Texas Rangers, a group of Texas volunteers for the Confederate Army.[10] As early as 1884, a federal post office named Lubbock existed in Yellow House Canyon. However, the town of Lubbock was not founded until 1890, when it was formed from a unique merger arrangement between two smaller towns, "Old Lubbock" and Monterey. The terms of the compromise included keeping the Lubbock name but the Monterey townsite, so the previous Old Lubbock residents relocated south to the Monterey location, including putting Old Lubbock's Nicolette Hotel on rollers and pulling it across a canyon to its new home. In 1891 Lubbock became the county seat and on March 16, 1909 Lubbock was incorporated.
Texas Technological College (now Texas Tech University) has been a part of Lubbock since 1923. Its medical school, the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, opened in 1969. Lubbock Christian University, founded in 1957, and Sunset International Bible Institute, both affiliated with the Churches of Christ, have their main campuses in the city. South Plains College and Wayland Baptist University operate branch campuses in Lubbock.
The city is home to the Lubbock Lake Landmark, part of the Museum of Texas Tech University. The landmark is an archaeological and natural history preserve at the northern edge of the city. It shows evidence of almost twelve thousand years of human occupation in the region. Another part of the museum, the National Ranching Heritage Center, houses historic ranch-related structures from the area.
In August 1951, a v-shaped formation of lights was seen over the city. The "Lubbock Lights" series of sightings received national publicity and is regarded as one of the first great UFO cases. The sightings were considered credible because they were witnessed by several respected science professors at Texas Technological College and were photographed by a Texas Tech student. The photographs were reprinted nationwide in newspapers and in Life magazine. Project Blue Book, the US Air Force's official study of the UFO mystery, did an extensive investigation of the Lubbock Lights. They concluded that the photographs were not a hoax and showed genuine objects. However, they did dismiss the UFOs themselves as being either "night-flying moths" or a type of bird called a plover. The Air Force argued that the underside of the plovers or moths was reflected in the glow of Lubbock's new street lights at night. However, other researchers have disputed these explanations, and for many the "Lubbock Lights" remain a mystery.
On May 11, 1970, the Lubbock Tornado struck the city. Twenty-six people died, and damage was estimated at $125 million. The downtown NTS Tower, then known as the Great Plains Life Building, at 271 feet (83 m) in height, is believed to have been the tallest building ever to survive a direct hit from an F5 tornado.[11] Then Mayor Jim Granberry and the Lubbock City Council, which included Granberry's successor as mayor, Morris W. Turner, were charged with directing the task of rebuilding the downtown in the aftermath of the storm.
In 2008 Lubbock celebrated its centennial.
The Lubbock area is the largest contiguous cotton-growing region in the world and is heavily dependent on irrigation water drawn from the Ogallala Aquifer.[20] However, the aquifer is being depleted at a rate that is not sustainable in the long term. Much progress has been made in the area of water conservation and new technologies such as Low Energy Precision Application (LEPA) irrigation were originally developed in the Lubbock area. A pipeline to Lake Alan Henry is expected to supply up to 3.2 billion gallons of water per year upon completion in 2012.[21]
Adolph R. Hanslik, who died in 2007 at the age of ninety, was called the "dean" of the Lubbock cotton industry, having worked for years to promote the export trade. Hanslik was also the largest contributor (through 2006) to the Texas Tech University Medical Center.[22] He also endowed the Texas Czech Heritage and Cultural Center's capital campaign for construction of a new library museum archives building in La Grange in Fayette County in his native southeastern Texas.[23]
The ten largest employers in terms of the number of employees are: Texas Tech University, Covenant Health System, Lubbock Independent School District, University Medical Center, United Supermarkets, City of Lubbock, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, AT&T, Convergys, and Lubbock County. A study conducted by a professor at the Rawls College of Business determined that Texas Tech students, faculty and staff generate about $1.5 billion with about $297.5 million from student shopping alone.[24]
Lubbock has one regional enclosed mall, South Plains Mall, which includes two Dillard's, JC Penney, Sears, and Bealls. More than 150 specialty retailers are located in the center, including Hollister, Abercrombie & Fitch, Forever 21, Christopher & Banks, aerie, Aldo, Cardinal's Sports Center, American Eagle Outfitters, Buckle, Finish Line, Victoria's Secret, and many others.
Lubbock also has numerous open air shopping centers, most located in the booming Southwest area of Lubbock: Kingsgate Shopping Center includes numerous upscale tenants such as Malouf's, Anderson Bros. Jewelers, Banana Republic, Coldwater Creek, Woodhouse Day Spa, Chico's, Harold's, Ann Taylor, and others. The Village Center is home to Zoo-kini's Restaurant, Ribbons & Bows, The Radiant Lily, Subway Restaurant, Cokesbury Books & Church Supplies, and others. Rockridge Plaza offers a Lowe's Grocery/Ace Hardware, O'Hana's Japanese Steakhouse, Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts, among other tenants.
Lubbock's newest, open air shopping center is Canyon West, located off the newly constructed Marsha Sharp Freeway (named after the renowned Texas Tech Women's Basketball coach, retired). Canyon West opened the first stores in mid-2007, with new stores continuing to open as of October 2008. Canyon West offers shoppers a new Target, Burlington Coat Factory, Petsmart, Office Depot, Ulta Salon & Cosmetics, Kirkland's, DSW Shoes, Rack Room Shoes, Rue 21, World Market, Ross, and LifeWay Christian Resources bookstore. In close proximity to Canyon West is a Starbucks (with drive-thru), Cracker Barrel restaurant, and Main Event - an indoor recreation and entertainment center.
As of March 2007, there are four Wal-Mart Supercenters in the city, with two having been recently completed. The downtown supercenter is at the intersection of Avenue Q and Mac Davis Lan
OTHER LUBBOCK LINKS:
Visit Lubbock: (http://www.visitlubbock.org/)
Lubbock County: http://www.co.lubbock.tx.us/
Lubbock EDC: http://www.lubbockeda.org/
City of Lubbock: http://www.ci.lubbock.tx.us/
Chamber of Commerce: http://www.lubbockchamber.com/cwt/external/wcpages/index.aspx