JAL - This is no tall tale. Cowboys said to be 21-feet-tall are now grazing cattle here on a ridge overlooking North Highway 18 and across the east and west sides of Highway 128.

The cowboys metal sculptures gracing a 400-foot area, are now welcoming people into this small community as they herd cattle toward a nearby watering hole. One of the larger-than-life cowboys points cattle toward water. The JAL brand painted on the animal sculptures will identify them as part of the historic JAL ranch herd from which the town takes its name.

Local artist Brian Norwood is the brain behind this massive undertaking.

With the help of a local welder, Gene Armstrong, and Armstrong's son, Norwood erected the 10 x 40-feet metal sculptures cut from quarter-inch sheets of steel, only a couple of weeks ago even though the formal dedication of the sculpture is still six months away.

It was a labor of love that took four days to complete.

Just last month, the site looked like a jigsaw puzzle with giant metal cutouts lying on a concrete slab.

The project wasn't expected to be completed until this fall, just before the formal dedication set for Labor Day weekend, when the town hosts a big Jal school reunion which will include every class that has ever graduated from Jal High School.

"One of the figures is the actual profile of a man who worked on the JAL ranch," Norwood said recently.

He and Armstrong began cutting the figures in October and finished just after Thanksgiving.

The initial idea was to paint the sculptures black, but Norwood decided they would look better in a natural rust color, which will also cut down on a need to repaint every other year.

"The most difficult process, was cutting, but overall, it was the most difficult putting up the figures," Norwood said. A crane had to be used to lift some of the figures.

The massive display is visible to passersby from at least a five-mile radius. The display is erected on private land owned by the Woolworth Trust Fund, which was established by a prominent Jal family who helped start Woolworth Community Library.

Norwood announced his idea for the cowboy display at a Jal Chamber of Commerce coffee last January and has since received $14,000 in donations to finance the project from start to finish.

He got the idea for the display after seeing a similar metal display in Oklahoma featured in Southern Living magazine. The Oklahoma sculpture attracts as many as 150,000 visitors a year and Norwood is banking on the notion that the Jal display will force many passersby to stop, pull over to the display and be more likely to visit Jal.

"My hope is that people won't be able to resist it. They'll have to stop and even take pictures," Norwood said. "We need something to get people off the highway and make them want to stop. If people stop and look at the sculpture, then they're more likely to want to stop and eat in town, fill up on gas and do other things."

A number of other people also volunteered to help with the project by doing things such as digging holes and helping with labor.

With the community behind this new attraction, this small town now has some mighty big folks to back them up.

HELENA RODRIGUEZ

HOBBS NEWS-SUN

Readers can e-mail their comments to Helena Rodriguez at lifestyles@hobbsnews.com or call her at 397-4556, ext. 132.