198-3 Entangled Records: Geoheritage and Archaeology of the Lubbock Lake Landmark

Session: Geoheritage Without Borders: International Perspectives on the Conservation and Celebration of Geodiversity, Part II

Presenting Author:

Stance Hurst

Authors:

Hurst, Stance¹, Johnson, Eileen²

Abstract:

The Lubbock Lake National Historic Landmark (shortened to Lubbock Lake Landmark or Landmark) is a 336 acre (~136 hectares) archaeological and nature preserve.  It is a satellite heritage facility under the auspices of the Museum of Texas Tech University and open to the public year-round. Situated on the Southern High Plains of northwestern Texas (USA), the Lubbock Lake Landmark is in a meander of Yellowhouse Draw that runs northwest to southeast across the region and is a now dry tributary of the Brazos River. The Landmark exemplifies how geology and archaeology —viewed through a landscape lens—together can define and enrich geoheritage. Discovered in 1936 during a municipal effort to rejuvenate springs by dredging in the meander, the Landmark has since become a focal point of interdisciplinary research. For over eight decades, both geological and archaeological investigations have been conducted at the Landmark, producing one of the most continuous late Quaternary records in North America. The Landmark’s significance lies not in isolated features, but in how sediments, soils, hydrology, and cultural deposits coalesce across time. Its stratified alluvial archive preserves evidence for both geomorphological and paleontological change and sustained human occupation over the past 12,000 years. Late Pleistocene and Holocene strata record dynamic environmental conditions, while the presence of multiple buried paleosols—such as the Firstview, Yellowhouse, and Lubbock Lake soils—serve as chronological anchors for paleontological and archaeological contexts. These sediments are not merely background to human history; they are constitutive of it. Taking a landscape perspective foregrounds the concept of persistent places shaped through the long-term entanglement of cultural and natural processes. The Landmark’s geomorphology structured opportunities for human land use, while archaeological investigations, in turn, have made visible the geological processes that shaped human history. Water, sedimentation, soil development, and site formation processes are all implicated in the production of geoheritage value. Rather than separating cultural and geological heritage, the Lubbock Lake Landmark demonstrates how these domains fundamentally are interwoven. Geoheritage, in this context, must be understood as the cumulative record of human interaction with geomorphology and geodiversity, embedded in place and expressed through layered evidence. Archaeology is not simply a tool for dating or interpreting deposits—it is a critical practice for revealing how landscapes are inhabited, transformed, and remembered.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-4750

© Copyright 2025 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved.