Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock is a perfect destination for visitors seeking the best of Texas. Lubbock has innumerable attractions and lots of thing to do. The city is also a great place to live and work in. Lubbock is worth visiting to experience its vibrant culture, friendly people, barbeques and healthy lifestyle.
Lubbock is said to be the 12th best place to start off with a small business because of its great business atmosphere, central location, low cost commercial space for rent and also the cooperation of the government that helps businesses get a good start.
The city of Lubbock is also well known for its amazing night life and live entertainment hangouts. Lubbock attracts a large crowd from all over the world for its clubbing venues and night life. From sport bars to dance clubs and lounges, Lubbock has some great hangouts including Café J, Cotton Club, Bar 101 and sport bars like Bash Riprocks, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Copper Caboose. The National Ranching Heritage Center which displays a number of early authentic Ranch buildings, Railroad depot and historic weaponry are worth visiting. The Depot district is very famous for its night life, music and a number of theaters. Lubbock experiences a mild climate throughout the year, with rare extremes.
Lubbock is an attractive city for both local residents as well as tourists. It has something to appeal to everyone's senses. The city is known for its ambient social atmosphere and its lively residents.
Lubbock History
When the city of Lubbock was founded, it was named after the governor of Texas during the Civil War, Thomas Saltus Lubbock. 200 years prior to this, Lubbock was covered with tall grasslands and roaming buffalo. This region was discovered by a Spanish explorer named Cornado in the year 1540 on his quest to find the "City of Gold".
Lubbock was formed in 1890 by merging two smaller towns Monterey and "Old Lubbock". Monterey was decided to be kept as the town site and the town was named Lubbock based on a compromise between the two towns. Hence the residents of Old Lubbock relocated to the south of Monterey and even the famous Nicolette Hotel was moved to its new home on rollers across a canyon. Lubbock became the county seat on March 16, 1891 and in 1909 Lubbock came into existence as a county by itself.
The Texas Tech University of Lubbock was established in 1923; today, it is a very famous technical university of Texas and extended itself by inaugurating the medical campus in 1969, called the Texas Tech University School of Medicine. In 1957 the Lubbock-Christian University and Sunset International Bible Institute were founded in the city, bringing in more students from across the country.
Lubbock's Lake Landmark that resides in the northern edge of the city, which is a part of the Museum of Texas Tech University, has a unique collection of natural history and archaeological preserves. This museum also shows proof of human occupation on the region for a period of about twelve thousand years. The other half of this museum is the National Ranching Heritage Center which houses Ranch historic structures of the place. The city also came into the news for a pattern of v-shaped lights which were spotted over the city in August 1951 by several science professors at Texas Technological College and were photographed by a tech student, hence were named as the "Lubbock Lights". These lights received national publicity as it was regarded as the first major UFO case. The city is also the birth place of Buddy Holly, the rock and roll legend.
On May 11, 1970, Lubbock experienced a tornado called the "Lubbock Tornado" in which twenty-six people lost their lives and an estimated $125 million in damage was caused due to the tornado. The Metro Tower is the only tall building that has sustained a direct hit of an F5 tornado in the world.
About Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock is a historic city located on the northwestern part of the state of Texas. It is the economic center of the Lubbock metropolitan area. Lubbock is popular for its cotton production and its cotton industries. It is also well known as the "Hub City" as it's a primary hub in the state for economy, health care and education.
Lubbock is a leading contiguous cotton producer in the world mainly because of its irrigation. However the water drawn from the Ogallala Aquifer is being depleted and is not sustainable in the long run. To overcome this, a lot of progress has been made in the water conservation field resulting to new technologies like Low Energy Precision Application (LEPA) irrigation being developed in the Lubbock area.
A number of shopping malls and open air shopping centers located in the southwestern area of Lubbock offer a huge range of national and local retailers. Some of the famous shopping centers are the Kingsgate shopping center, Canyon west and The Village. Kingsgate is a home to numerous upscale restaurants and shops, and Lubbock is a good place for shopaholics.
Music is in the veins of the people of Lubbock. The city is the birth place of Buddy Holly, the rock and roll legend and also various country musicians such as Butch Hancock, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Delbert McClendon. A cultural center has helped keep the memory alive for the top musicians of the city. The city regularly hosts a music festival named Buddy Holly to encourage musicians all round the world to showcase their talent.
The National Cowboy Symposium, which is celebrated every year around the month of September features arts, music, cowboy poetry and the presentation of scholarly papers on the history of the American west and the cowboy culture. Horse parades and a chuckwagon cook-off also take place during this event.
On the 4th of July, every year the Independence Day festival is held. This festival is totally free to the public and is considered the largest free festival in the whole of Texas because a large number of people participate in this event. It generally starts off with a morning parade and is followed by a fair that is set up along Broadway Avenue with live bands and food stalls. Broadway Festivals, Inc are the organizers of this event.
The city is well known for attractions such as the National Ranching Heritage center, the Silent Wings Museum and the Science Spectrum. The Ranching Heritage has a beautiful collection of old ranching buildings and weaponry. The Silent Wings Museum features artifacts and photographs from World War 2 glider pilots and the Science Spectrum is an IMAX Dome theater built specially for children.
About Lubbock County, Texas
The city of Lubbock is located in the Lubbock County in Texas and is the county seat. The population of Lubbock was around 242,600 according to a census taken in the year 2000. Lubbock county and the city were named after Thomas Saltus Lubbock, a Texas Ranger and a Confederate Colonel.
Lubbock County partially lies in the Lubbock-Levelland Combined Statistical Area. Crosby County is the neighbor of the Lubbock County according to Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Lubbock County spreads itself across a good 901 square miles (2,300 km), out of which 890 square miles is land and about 1 square mile (0.13%) is water. Hale County, Lynn County, Hockley County and Crosby County are on the north, south, east and west of Lubbock county respectively.
According to the census recoded in the year 2000, Lubbock had 242,600 people, 60,130 families and 92,510 households residing in it. Out of the total households, 31.70% of them had children and 48.20% were married couples. The racial breakdown of the county was found to be 74.30% white , 7.67% black , 1.30% Asian , 0.59% natives of America , 14.15% other races out of which 27.45% of the population was considered Latino or Hispanic.
The county population was spread out with 11.00% of the people 65 years and older, 19.20% from 45-64 years of age, 28% were between 25-44, 16.30% from 18 to 24 and 25.70% under the age of 18. The average age of people was found to be around 30 years. For every 100 average aged females there were 95.50 males and for every 100 females aged 18 and over there were 92.60 males. The average income of a family in the county was $41,500 and the average income of a household was $32,200. The median income of male was $30,000 versus females who earned $21,500. The county had a per capita income of about $17,323. Around 18% of the people and 12% of the families were below the poverty line out of which 21.50% were below 18 years of age and 11% were 65 years and over.