Lubbock is all about ranching (and Texas Tech). It is a natural home for The National Ranching Heritage Center displays restored and period furnished ranch structures dating 1750 -1950. Step into a dark, windowless adobe structure and you can sense the fear of early settlers who arrived here during Indian wars. The smell of damp earth hits you in the face as you step into the dugout with its dirt floor and stacked stone walls. Some had sod roofs. In the driest of the plains, homes were built using yucca stalks and spindly pickets. Wind must have howled through it.
Ranchers prospered. Railroads brought in luxuries, like lumber. Homes grew more comfortable and filled with niceties. Carriage houses and schools appeared. It is a great way to get a feel for how lives changed through the years.
There is a museum too where a Buckskin and Beads display includes wonderful examples of early clothing and ceremonial wear. A small gun collection tells of the development of the lever action rifle and the entanglement of various patents, inventions, and inventors. One barn is filled with a huge collection of branding irons. Some have been in use for many generations. They are a study unto themselves.

A herd of bronze longhorns roams the front lawn of the Heritage Center.