Site of Old Lubbock
Lubbock, Lubbock County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A predecessor of present Lubbock, this area was, in 1890, a subject of heated dispute by three factions (led by W.D. Crump, W.E. Rayner, and Frank Wheelock) that vied in the founding of the county seat. Unlike most county seat debaters in Texas, though, these men had no long-established towns to support. Their main interest was in organizing the county. In the course of the rivalry, the groups founded two settlements. The Crump faction, later joined by the Wheelock group and several financial backers, started "Old Lubbock" at this site. Called "North Town" because it was located north of Yellow House Canyon, the site took in section 7, block A, bounded by the present streets of Quirt, Ash, Erskine, and Kent. The site soon attained a population of about 50 and boasted a reported 37 buildings, including the most historic one in the county: the Nicolett Hotel. Rayner's rival settlement south of the canyon was named "Monterey" and was popularly called "South Town". Surprisingly, though, the factions did not reach the permanent hostility common to such disputes. On December 19, 1890, they united in a compromise unique in West Texas history; and as a result, the city of Lubbock was founded on the site where it now stands. (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1890, three factions led by W.D. Crump, W.E. Rayner, and Frank Wheelock competed to organize Lubbock County—not by backing established towns, but by founding new ones. The Crump and Wheelock groups started 'Old Lubbock,' or North Town, above Yellow House Canyon, a settlement of some 50 people and 37 buildings anchored by the Nicolett Hotel, while Rayner's rival 'Monterey' sat to the south. Rather than feud to the bitter end, the rivals struck a rare compromise on December 19, 1890, merging to found present-day Lubbock.
Why it matters
Old Lubbock illustrates how West Texas county seats were often deliberately conjured into being, and how an unusual spirit of compromise, rather than rivalry, birthed a major city.
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Related people
- · W.D. Crump
- · W.E. Rayner
- · Frank Wheelock
Related events
- · Founding of Lubbock (1890)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Yellowhouse Canyon
Lubbock, TX
Yellowhouse Canyon was known to Spanish explorers in the 17th and 18th centuries and described by traveler Albert Pike in 1832, long before Anglo settlement reached the Llano Estacado. It was here in 1877 that white buffalo hunters clashed with the Native peoples who had long ranged these plains—remembered on the marker as the last such battle in Lubbock County. The canyon stands as a threshold between the era of the free plains tribes and the settlement that displaced them.
General Ranald Slidell Mackenzie
Lubbock, TX
A New York-born officer who rose to major general in the Civil War, Ranald Slidell Mackenzie took command of the 4th Cavalry in 1871 and led it in a series of campaigns across the Llano Estacado against the Comanches, Kiowas, and Southern Cheyennes. His surprise attack on villages in Palo Duro Canyon on September 28, 1874—where his troops captured and destroyed some 1,424 horses—left the Southern Plains tribes without the means to resist. Their forced move onto reservations opened West Texas to white settlement.
Lubbock County
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Created in 1876 and organized in 1891, Lubbock County honors Colonel Thomas S. Lubbock (1817-1862), a soldier of the Texas Revolution and Republic. Lubbock marched with the New Orleans Greys at the storming of Bexar, joined the ill-fated Santa Fe and Somervell expeditions, and in 1861 helped organize the famous Terry's Texas Rangers before his death. The county he named became the anchor of the South Plains.
Mackenzie Scout Trail
Lubbock, TX
In the early 1870s the U.S. Army cut this scouting route across the West Texas plains, part of the campaigns that opened the Llano Estacado to outside travel. After the soldiers came the buffalo hunters of the late 1870s, and then the cattlemen who drove herds across the open range until barbed wire fenced it in. The granite block itself carries a poignant twist: it was taken from the graveyard wall of a South Carolina woman, Nancy Anderson, and set here by her descendants in the D.A.R.