LUBBOCK, Texas — On Friday, Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham announced in a press release that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) awarded Texas land management agencies $15,902,647 for the establishment of the fifth West Texas State Veterans Cemetery to be built in Lubbock.

The new cemetery will serve more than 21,000 Veterans and their eligible family members, and be run by the Texas Veterans Land Board (VLB) under the Texas General Land Office (GLO).

According to the press release, the funding will provide West Texas Vets with a new cemetery complete with 510 pre-positioned crypts, 600 columbaria niches, 1,000 in-ground cremated remains plots, an administrative building, a maintenance facility, roads, a memorial walk, a scattering garden and all associated landscaping and irrigation.

The VLB will also contribute another $638,400 to complete the cemetery’s loop road, add an additional 2,000 in-ground cremated remains plots and add motorized gates at the entryway, the press release said.

Construction is expected to last 22 months and conclude in late summer 2025.