806 Area Code 🌍☎️

Lubbock is the 10th-most populous city in Texas and the 84th-most populous in the United States, with a 2020 census population of 257,141 and an estimated 2024 population of 272,086, serving as the county seat of Lubbock County in the northwestern Great Plains region known as the Llano Estacado. Nicknamed "Hub City" for its role as the economic, educational, and healthcare center of the South Plains region, Lubbock sits in the largest contiguous cotton-growing area in the world and depends heavily on the Ogallala Aquifer for irrigation. Founded as Lubbock County in 1876 and named after Texas Ranger Thomas Saltus Lubbock, the city was established through an 1890 merger of Old Lubbock and Monterey, became the county seat in 1891, and incorporated in 1909 with the arrival of the first railroad train. Lubbock is home to Texas Tech University, founded in 1923 as Texas Technological College and now the sixth-largest college by enrollment in Texas, as well as Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center established in 1969 and overseen by the Texas Tech University System based in the city since 1996. The city also hosts the Lubbock Lake Landmark, an archaeological preserve showing 12,000 years of human occupation, and the National Ranching Heritage Center, both operated by the Museum of Texas Tech University, while the former Reese Air Force Base, established in 1941 and closed in 1997, now operates as Reese Technology Center. Amarillo, the county seat of Potter County in the Texas Panhandle, is the 17th-most populous city in Texas with an estimated population of 203,729 as of 2024, comprising nearly half of the panhandle's 308,297-person metropolitan area. Originally named Oneida and established in 1887 by John T. Berry along the Fort Worth and Denver Railway, the city was relocated eastward in 1888 by Henry B. Sanborn and became the county seat in 1893, emerging as one of the world's busiest cattle-shipping points by the late 1890s. Named for the Spanish word "amarillo" (yellow), referring to yellow wildflowers and soil along nearby waterways, the city is known by nicknames including "The Yellow Rose of Texas," "Helium Capital of the World" for its once-dominant helium production facility established in 1929, and "Bomb City" due to the presence of Pantex, the nation's only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility. The economy is anchored by one of the largest meat-packing operations in the United States, the Pantex nuclear facility, and the V-22 Osprey aircraft assembly plant, earning the city the nickname "Rotor City, USA." Natural gas discovered in 1918 and oil found in 1921 contributed to the city's development into a major energy and manufacturing hub. Plainview is the county seat of Hale County in the Texas Panhandle, with a population of 20,187 as of the 2020 census, and is located on the Llano Estacado in a semiarid climate. Founded in 1887 by Z.T. Maxwell and Edwin Lowden Lowe, the town earned the nickname "Athens of West Texas" by 1910 when it had nearly 3,000 residents following the 1906 arrival of the Pecos and Northern Texas Railway. Plainview is home to Wayland Baptist University, established in 1909, and hosts the Jimmy Dean Meat Company (founded 1969) and a major Missouri Beef Packers processing plant (established 1971), making it a significant agricultural and meat-processing hub for the high plains region. The Downtown Plainview Commercial Historic District serves as a business and cultural center with cafes and parks, while notable landmarks include the 1962 Automitat underground home and bunker.