Lubbock County

Lubbock County, Texas

Lubbock County, Texas

The Lubbock County Courthouse is located in the city of Lubbock, the county seat. Photograph by Billy Hathorn.
Lubbock County, Texas

Lubbock County, Texas

Map of Lubbock County, Texas. Map Credit: Robert Plocheck.

Lubbock County is located in Northwest Texas on the Southern High Plains, within the larger Great Plains of the western United States. The center of the county lies at 33°35' north latitude and 101°52' west longitude. Lubbock, its largest city, is 327 miles northwest of Dallas and 122 miles south of Amarillo. The county measures 893 square miles of flat tableland sloping gently from northwest to southeast, with elevations ranging from 2,900 to 3,400 feet. Its soils are mainly brown to reddish-brown loams and sandy loams, with smaller areas of grayish-brown, silty clay loams. These overlie a clay subsoil and, beneath that, at from two to three feet from the surface, a hardpan of caliche made of calcium carbonate. This caliche forms the Caprock, which has generally prevented streams from cutting their way through the area. Beneath the caliche zone lie beds of water-filled sand of varying thickness but averaging about 300 feet; these make up a part of the great Ogallala Aquifer, formed some ten million years ago as great rivers deposited sand from the Rocky Mountains over an area extending several hundred miles east of the mountains, from what is now Canada to the South Plains of Texas. In 1968 there were 922 small, wind-scoured lakes called playas dotting the county and providing refuge for wildfowl. These are formed by runoff from rainwater and range in size from less than an acre to more than fifty acres. Grasses are predominantly buffalo and blue grama, and in summer there is a profusion of wildflowers, including daisies, buttercups, verbena, and Indian paintbrush, together with scattered yucca and catclaw. Before its settlement the county was treeless, except for cottonwoods and hackberries in the canyons. In later times Chinese elms, oaks, pines, cedars, and a few other trees were introduced, along with mesquite in the nineteenth century. The county is classed as semiarid; its average annual rainfall is 18.41 inches, most of which occurs during the growing season of 208 days. The average minimum temperature in January is 25° F, and the maximum in July averages 92°.

Lubbock County is one of the oldest inhabited places in the state, if not the oldest. In the northern part of the city of Lubbock is the archeological site known as the Lubbock Lake Site, the first archeological site in Texas to be entered on the National Register of Historic Places (see LUBBOCK LAKE NATIONAL HISTORIC AND STATE ARCHEOLOGICAL LANDMARK). There, in Yellow House Canyon, preserved in the twenty-foot wall of a dry lakebed, lies one of the very few known records of human habitation in Texas reaching back uninterrupted for at least 12,000 years. There Paleo-Indians camped and hunted the elephant, camel, bison, giant bear, and prehistoric horse, all long since extinct. Although the evidence is not conclusive, some authorities believe Francisco Vásquez de Coronado was the first Spaniard to visit the lake, during his famous expedition of 1540. In 1629 Father Juan de Salas led an expedition that went down Black Water Draw to Yellow House Canyon on its way from Santa Fe to the South Concho River. In 1650 another expedition commanded by captains Hernán Martín and Diego del Castillo used the same route, as did Capt. Diego de Guadalajara four years later. Other Spanish expeditions traveled this same route and on their maps gave the name La Punta de Agua to the Lubbock Lake Site, which is now in Mackenzie State Recreation Area.

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Lawrence L. Graves | © TSHA

Handbook of Texas Logo

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.

Currently Exists

Yes

Place type

Lubbock County is classified as a County

Altitude Range

2821 ft – 3402 ft

Size

Land area does not include water surface area, whereas total area does

  • Land Area: 895.6 mi²
  • Total Area: 900.7 mi²

Temperature

January mean minimum: 26.4°F
July mean maximum: 92.8°F

Rainfall, 2019

19.1 inches

Population Count, 2019

310,569

Civilian Labor Count, 2019

152,318

Unemployment, 2019

6.9%

Property Values, 2019

$23,048,004,094 USD

Per-Capita Income, 2019

$42,569 USD

Retail Sales, 2019

$6,227,548,166 USD

Wages, 2019

$1,716,623,337 USD

Lubbock County

Highlighted:
  • Lubbock County
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Place Type Population (Year/Source) Currently Exists
Town 2,804 (2021) Yes
Town 152 (2009) Yes
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Town 62 (2009) Yes
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Lake Yes
Town 459 (2021) Yes
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Town 59 (2009) Yes
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Town 32 (2009) Yes
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Town 91 (2009) Yes
Town 152 (2009) Yes
Town 2,152 (2021) Yes
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Town 228 (2009) Yes
Town 260,993 (2021) Yes
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Town
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Town 729 (2021) Yes
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Town 225 (2009) Yes
Town 1,170 (2021) Yes
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Town 362 (2009) Yes
Town 2,940 (2021) Yes
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Town 5,811 (2021) Yes
Town 245 (2009) Yes
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Town
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Town
Town
Town
Town 6,008 (2021) Yes
Town 2,034 (2009) Yes

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