Lubbock, TX
Opened 1948. Renamed for Texas Gov. Preston Smith in 2004. Lubbock is the West Texas plains and Buddy Holly's birthplace — the Buddy Holly Center and his grave (City of Lubbock Cemetery) are both in town.
On the grounds of KLBB sits a museum dedicated to one of the most overlooked combat roles of World War II: the American glider pilots who trained at South Plains Army Airfield (now KLBB) from 1942 to 1945 and flew engineless Waco CG-4A gliders into Sicily, Normandy, Operation Market Garden, the Rhine crossing, Burma, and the Philippines. The museum holds a fully restored CG-4A — 48 feet long, 83-foot wingspan, wood and fabric — and tells the story of how 6,000 men were trained at Lubbock to fly an aircraft with no engine on a single one-way combat mission. The Silent Wings Memorial wall lists every glider pilot killed in action. Easy walk from the FBO ramp.
Palo Duro Canyon is 120 miles long, 20 miles wide, and 800 feet deep — the second-largest canyon in the United States after the Grand Canyon. From the air, the Texas Panhandle's almost supernatural flatness is interrupted without warning by this massive gash in the earth. The color palette is stunning: red, orange, and yellow layers of Permian-age rock against the endless tan of the Llano Estacado above. The 'Lighthouse' rock formation — a distinctive hoodoo — is visible from altitude. The canyon was the site of the decisive 1874 Red River War battle where Colonel Ranald Mackenzie destroyed a Comanche horse herd, ending the Southern Plains Indian Wars.
In 1974, San Francisco art collective Ant Farm proposed to Amarillo millionaire Stanley Marsh 3 a tribute to "the evolution of the Cadillac tailfin." Marsh agreed. They acquired ten used Cadillacs spanning model years 1949 to 1963 and buried them nose-down in one of Marsh's wheat fields, inclined at the angle of the Great Pyramid of Giza, evenly spaced and pointing east-to-west. Total cost: $3,250. Charles Kuralt put it on national television a year later. In 1997 the entire installation was exhumed and replanted two miles west along the I-40 frontage road, ahead of Amarillo's encroaching city limits — even the original site's litter was carried over for authenticity. Graffiti is encouraged; spray paint is sold on-site. Fifty years later, the cars wear a foot-thick rind of layered paint.
During WWII, Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas was the only all-female military air base in American history. The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) trained here from 1943 to 1944, flying every type of military aircraft to free male pilots for combat. These women ferried bombers, towed targets for live gunnery practice, and tested repaired aircraft — 38 were killed in service. Despite flying over 60 million miles, the WASP weren't granted military status until 1977 and didn't receive the Congressional Gold Medal until 2010. The National WASP WWII Museum in Hangar 1 at Avenger Field preserves their legacy. The airport (KSWW) is still active.