Lubbock Lake Landmark
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Lubbock Lake Site
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Visitor center and museum
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 Lubbock Lake
Lubbock Lake
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| Location | Lubbock, Texas |
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| Nearest city | Lubbock, Texas |
| Coordinates | 33°37′19″N 101°53′23″W / 33.62194°N 101.88972°WCoordinates: 33°37′19″N 101°53′23″W / 33.62194°N 101.88972°W |
| NRHP Reference # | 71000948 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | June 21, 1971 |
| Designated NHL | December 22, 1977 |
Lubbock Lake Landmark, also known as Lubbock Lake Site, is an important archeological site and natural history preserve in the city of Lubbock, Texas. The preserve is 336 acres and is a protected state and federal landmark. There is evidence of ancient people and extinct animals at Lubbock Lake Landmark. It has evidence of nearly 12,000 years of use by ancient cultures on the Llano Estacado. It is run by the Museum of Texas Tech University.
Visitors can watch active archeological digs. Volunteers from around the world help with the ongoing excavations each summer, and local people can volunteer also, making the site accessible for non-scientists. There are both guided and self-guided tours offered throughout the year. The landmark's hours of operation are Tuesday-Saturday from 9am-5pm, and Sunday from 1pm-5pm.
The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is a designated National Historic and State Archeological Landmark.
Lubbock Lake is located in a meander of the Yellow House Draw also known as "Punta de Agua", a tributary of the Brazos River, near ancient springs. People on the Llano Estacado used the water resources in the draw until those resources went dry in the early 1930s. In 1936, the City of Lubbock dredged the meander in an effort to make it a usable water supply. These efforts were unsuccessful, but brought to light the archeological significance of the site. Today, there is very little standing water and no actual lake at the site.
The first explorations of the site were conducted in 1939 by the West Texas Museum, now the Museum of Texas Tech University. In 1936, Clark Kimmel and Turner Kimmel found projectile points from the Firemen's Reservoir. In the late 1940s, several Folsom Period (10,800-10,300 years ago) bison kills were discovered. At one location of an ancient bison kill from a then unidentified Paleo-Indian group, charred bison bones produced the first ever radiocarbon date, which is still the most accurate form of dating for Paleo-Indian material (about 9,800 years old).
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