Lubbock: The Town
Downtown Lubbock, and the university, are on the northern side of town. Few buildings of interest survive, thanks to the construction boom of the 1950s and a tornado in 1970. However, you can get a stimulating overview of local history at the university's Ranching Heritage Center , Fourth Street and Indiana Avenue (Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm; free). Over thirty original ranch buildings, from simple cowboy huts to grand overseers' houses, are set in a harsh landscape spiked with cactuses and mesquite. There's an excellent museum on pioneer and cowboy history, and demonstrations on making lye soap, sourdough and quilts. The adjacent Texas Tech Museum (Tues, Wed, Fri, Sat 10am-5pm, Thurs 10am-8.30pm, Sun 1-5pm; free) has further Southwestern displays and Buddy Holly memorabilia.Nearby, the Lubbock Lake Landmark State Historical Park archeological site (Tues-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm; free; ) has yielded an impressive array of artifacts spanning 12,000 years, although to the untrained eye it resembles little more than a dry gravelly site buzzing with gigantic Texan insects. As indeed does Prairie Dog Town , in Mackenzie State Park, where six hundred of the cuddly little rodents are attempting to repopulate the world and gain their revenge for the attempts of government officials and irate ranchers in the 1930s to poison them into extinction.
Three miles east of the Loop on Farm Road 1585, the Llano Estacado winery started as the hobby of two university professors. It might look incongruous, set amid scrubby pastureland and cottonfields, but its success has led Lubbock to pin great hopes on the potential of wine to revitalize and diversify its flagging economy. Visitors are given a guided tour and free tasting (Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm; tel 806/745-2258, ).
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