Lubbock

Lubbock is a city on the Llano Estacado, the high flat plain of West Texas, at the center of a large cotton-growing region. Buddy Holly, the rock and roll singer of Peggy Sue and That'll Be the Day, was born in Lubbock.

The towns of Monterey and Old Lubbock merged in 1890 to form the town, which was named after Thomas S. Lubbock, a Texas Ranger. The railway reached the town in the early 20th century and brought farmers to the plains, where wells pumped water from the Ogallala Aquifer to irrigate cotton and grain. Texas Tech University opened in 1923 and grew into the main university of West Texas. Lubbock became the market and service center for the farms and ranches of the South Plains. Its open land and steady winds later drew wind farms to the plains around it.

The Plains Cotton Cooperative Association, based in Lubbock, markets cotton grown by farmers of Texas and Oklahoma. Llano Estacado Winery, one of the oldest modern wineries in Texas, makes wine from grapes of the High Plains.

The Buddy Holly Center, in an old railway depot, shows his glasses, guitars and records, and a statue of him stands on a plaza nearby. The National Ranching Heritage Center, at Texas Tech, has a park of ranch houses, barns and windmills moved from across the region. The Texas Tech Red Raiders play football at Jones AT&T Stadium on the campus. The Lubbock Lake Landmark, an archaeological site on the north edge of the city, shows traces of people who hunted on the plain for thousands of years.