A new state-run veterans cemetery will officially open Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Lubbock to serve more than 21,000 veterans and eligible family members living within 75 miles of it. (Texas General Land Office)
A new state-run veterans cemetery will officially open Friday in Lubbock, Texas, to serve more than 21,000 veterans and eligible family members living within 75 miles of it.
The West Texas State Veterans Cemetery is the fifth burial ground opened by Texas, which is home to 1.4 million veterans — one of the largest veteran populations in the country.
“Finding an honorable resting place for our veterans is incredibly important and doing that as close to their loved ones as possible so their loved ones can go visit whenever they want is also more important,” Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said.
Previously, families in West Texas had to travel 150 miles or more to bury and visit the graves of their veteran loved ones.
The $16 million project came together with support from the federal government and will continue to expand through eight phases of construction, Buckingham said. The cemetery began hosting private burials through a soft opening in June and already has thousands of people preregistered for interment.
More than 36,000 veterans and eligible family members are buried in the five cemeteries managed by the state of Texas. The others are located in Killeen, Corpus Christi, Mission and Abilene.
The sixth is already in the works near Tyler, in east Texas. Buckingham said they anticipate needing about $20 million to open it. Each cemetery is supported through grant funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“We’re working with a landowner who’s donating the land, so we’re excited and hope within the next couple years that we’ll be looking at that,” Buckingham said.
That cemetery will be a joint operation with the federal government because of policies regarding unserved areas with sizable veteran populations.
Midland, Del Rio, Laredo and Beaumont are under consideration for future Texas cemeteries.
“We would love to have veterans cemeteries all over the state everywhere, but of course, that’s not financially doable,” Buckingham said. “We really have to be careful about the sites we pick and create a sustainable model so that we can take care of these properties.”
The design of the Lubbock cemetery pulls from the local culture. It incorporates the colors scarlet and black in honor of nearby Texas Tech University as well as the architecture style of the campus. The perimeter split-rail fencing pays homage to the cavalry units with history in the region.
The VA also operates six cemeteries in Texas. They are in Dallas, El Paso, Houston and Kerrville. There are two in San Antonio.