LUBBOCK, Texas – Home to Texas Tech, windmills, and wineries, this part of the panhandle has a plethora of pleasant things to do. One of the most popular stops in this place involves a particular field full of prairie dogs.
Stewart Gerhart is the Park Operations Manager for the city of Lubbock. He’s in charge of 80 outdoor areas around town but his favorite particular place of refuge involves these crazy little critters at MacKenzie Park known as Praire Dog Town.
“People always say, ‘Oh, you’re from that town that has the prairie dog town,’” Stewart says. “It’s not Texas Tech. It’s not Lubbock. It’s the town where the prairie dog town is.”
Today, hundreds of prairie dogs have planted roots in the park, but it all started with four of them in 1935. That’s when Kennedy N. Clapp established this refuge for rodents.
“We were seeing the prairie dogs becoming extinct because of governmental poisoning and wanted to come up with a way to keep the prairie dogs,” Stewart informed us.
Surprisingly, the prairie dog population is minuscule to what it was when pioneers crossed the plains. According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife, Texas used to have prairie dog colonies that covered 25,000 square miles with around 400 million prairie dogs. Today, less than one percent of that prairie dog population remains.
“There’s just a joy in seeing new things, different things,” Janet, a park visitor, shared. “To some people it might be just an old whoopee, a little rat like animal wondering around. What’s the fun in that? But still, they’re God’s creatures and sometimes they cause havoc with farmers and ranchers. They handle that situation, but it’s just nice to see something that you don’t see at home.”
These little lovable looking little guys are actually pretty fierce fighters but if you have something for them to snack on, they’ll be happy to get a bit closer than normal.
“They like to eat corn, chips, anything people will feed them,” Jerry said.
Unfortunately for the prairie dogs, they’re the food source for big birds, hence the reason there aren’t any big trees near the borough. The small wall surrounding the town usually keeps them safe and secure but not always.
“They don’t like to root where they can’t see,” Jerry explained. “They’ll stay, for the most part, in the prairie dog town behind that wall, but there are the Marco Polos of the world that get out and run. They get on the golf course. They get on the ball fields. They go everywhere.”
The best part of visiting this park is hearing them communicate with each other.
“When they start barking, the other ones stand up and look to see what’s he barking at,” Jerry says.
It’s been said that the prairie dog language is so complicated these creatures can tell each other about approaching danger, where it’s come from, and even what it looks like.
So come hear the whisper of these whiskered wild animals because getting a good laugh and a big smile are always well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List.
“It’s fun to see people coming in and wanting to be a part of Prairie Dog Town,” Jerry says.