10/09/2026
Our volunteer Rick Zartman has reviewed the new book, "The Story the Bones Tell," by Sally Logue Post. The book is for sale in our gift shop:
Lubbock Lake Landmark, part of the Museum of Texas Tech University, is a three hundred thirty-six-acre archaeology site and nature preserve located in northwest Lubbock, Texas. As Sally Logue Post states in her book The Story the Bones Tell: A history of the Lubbock Lake Landmark, the “Landmark is one of the most noteworthy archaeology sites in the Americas.”
The book’s title is so well chosen with the word bones used in the archaeological sense to describe the form and function of the animals excavated from the site to the use of bones to emphasize the form and function of the Landmark itself. Post’s book covers the history from a serendipitous find of a Folsom Point in the spoil bank of a “U-shaped reservoir” to an incredibly significant archaeology site.
The chapter on Politics of Preservation discusses the process of finding a “Treasure chest of ancient artifacts and bones” and growing in size while walking the tightrope between various political entities.
Subsequent chapters discuss excavation of megafauna (Very large-sized animal) bones and artifacts (bone, stone, and wooden tools) at the Lubbock site. Who knew that the ancient bison, camel and horse, Columbian mammoth, short-faced bear, and American lion once roamed and thrived in this area? The book not only discusses the Lubbock site excavations, but also the ancillary site excavations that add context and texture to the archaeological history of the Southern High Plains. One of the final chapters is entitled Lessons from the Landmark, which details the information gained and disseminated though various outreach programs.
If you or someone you know are interested in the happenings of the Southern High Plains from the Ice Age to the 1880s, this is the book for you. -- Rick Zartman See less
