Jerry Phillips                                                                                                                           Approximate Word Count 1350
1113 S. Oak Ave.                                                                                                                    © 2000 Jerry Phillips
Broken Arrow, OK 74012                                                                                                      Email: GPhil@ix.netcom.com
(918) 251-3829                                                                                                                         

      It's a desolate, barren landscape--one of chalky, alkaline soil, mesquite, prickly-pear

cactus, wind, and sun--lots of sun. Engulfed on all sides by a semi-arid desert is the dusty

little town of Jal, New Mexico, population 2,156. The natives there may raise an eyebrow,

laugh, or frown if you mispronounce the name of their town, and they will definitely correct

you. It isn't "Jall", nor "Jail". Some visitors to New Mexico, thinking that all "Js" are

pronounced as a Spanish "J", will say "Hall". That's wrong, too. It rhymes with "gal".

In fact, any young lady indigenous to the area might be referred to as a Jal gal. The name

was derived from a cattle brand consisting of the initials of a late nineteenth-century cattleman,

John A. Lynch. Area pioneer ranchers, the Cowden brothers, purchased a herd and the rights

to the brand in San Angelo, Texas. Although there is speculation as to whether or not Lynch

was the J.A.L. behind the brand, it is very likely that he never visited or even knew of Jal.

      Nonetheless, John A. Lynch's town sits in the southeastern corner of Lea County, New

Mexico, at the intersection of state highways 18 and 128. Geologically, it's between two

large underground oil and gas reserves, the Delaware Basin and the Permian Basin.

It's a boom and bust oil town. The boom began in the 1930s, centering around the El Paso

Natural Gas Company. Jal once boasted a billboard at the edge of town proclaiming it

"The Natural Gas Capital of the World", but those days have long since vanished. The oil

and gas industry began to experience economic difficulties and a general decline in the 1980s,

and when El Paso Natural Gas moved its main offices from Jal in 1985, Jal went bust.

Today, like most small oil boom towns, it struggles simply to survive, a mere shadow of it's

former self. Still, it survives, because of the proud, stubborn and hard-working people who

live there and who refuse to cry "uncle".

      Their Molly Brown attitude of "We ain't down yet" has been especially evident during this

past year. In January of 1999, Brian Norwood, an artist who graduated from the local high

school in 1975, had a vision. His vision was to create a sculpture which would have a major

visual impact, attracting visitors and contributing positively in some way to Jal's future

economic growth. Brian's vision came into sharp focus after reading a magazine article

about a monumental metal sculpture which had been erected in the small town of Hominy,

Oklahoma. The Hominy sculpture, created by that town's local artist, Cha Tullis, consisted

of a Native American hunting party--fifteen braves on horseback placed atop a hill

overlooking the town. What made these figures unique was that they were a colossal

twenty feet tall and were drawing 200,000 visitors to the little Oklahoma town each year.

      Brian's brain kicked into gear. He envisioned a similar work in southeastern New Mexico,

but one that would reflect the spirit and history of his hometown before its oil boom years--

its cowboy and ranching heritage. His monument would be a depiction of a cattle drive, four

giant cowboys on horseback herding thirteen giant cattle toward the old Jal watering hole.

He presented his idea to the local chamber of commerce, and by the end of the month the

Jal Cowboy Sculpture Project was born, with Brian's idea quickly spreading through the

hearts and minds of the proud people of Jal.

      As it happens, the community was already making plans for a big Y2K reunion to be

held on Labor Day of the year 2000. This was to be the biggest and best reunion ever, and

would include all the Jal High School graduating classes from the past sixty-three years.

The news of the sculpture project, coupled with the reunion plans, ignited the fires of Jal's

collective imagination. When Brian promised to finish the sculpture in time for the reunion,

a flurry of activity began. The locals began a drive to finance the $14,000 project by using

the internet and the existing Jal Panther Reunion Website. Alumni were contacted, informed

of the project, and given the opportunity to show their support by sending in donations to the

Jal Chamber of Commerce. In addition, local businesses contributed labor, equipment and

materials, without which the projects's cost would have skyrocketed. "Paint the Town" days

(about six, so far) were organized to freshen-up and color-coordinate the buildings along

Main Street. Massive clean up efforts were organized and are continuing, with the city

donating free trash hauling for citizens wanting to clean up their property.

      Brian, in the meantime, began working on the sculpture--designing the figures and

working out their placement relative to one another. Next came the enlargement of the

figures, hours spent working with rolls of brown paper, masking tape, and an x-acto knife,

creating templates of the twenty foot tall cowboys which would later be used to trace the

work onto the seven sheets of quarter-inch steel used for the project--each 10 x 40 foot

sheet of steel weighing 4,084 pounds. The steel was delivered to the sculpture site on

September 9th, 1999, approximately nine months from the initial idea's conception.

By November 27th, all seventeen figures had been cut from the rectangular metal sheets.

During this "cutting" phase of the project Brian had an unusual visitor at the site. Each day

a curious roadrunner, the New Mexico state bird, came to watch the work progress from

various vantage points in the area. Pictures of the roadrunner, along with photos showing the

progression of the project from start to finish, may be found at the reunion website,

https://jalpanthers.tripod.com/   At this point, Gene Armstrong, class of 1952, and his son,

Gooser Armstrong, class of 1982, began the laborious process of constructing the six-inch

pipe frames which would be welded to the backsides of the figures, enabling them to be

erected on the desert landscape by means of six-foot pipe extensions, anchored in six-foot

holes drilled into the hard, rocky ground.

      By March 2nd, 2000, all the figures and their attached pipe frames had been completed.

All that remained was moving each figure a half-mile to the actual erection site. Norwood

laughs, "Imagine seeing a one-ton winch truck dragging a twelve-foot-high cow (with six

feet of pipe extending below its hooves) down a narrow dirt road."  A crane was used to

hoist the largest figures, the mounted cowboys, into place, twelve cubic yards of concrete

were poured into the thirty-four holes, and on March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, the Jal

Cowboy Sculpture project was completed. Fourteen months after its conception and more

than five months before its dedication, the Jal Cowboy Sculpture is already drawing crowds

to this little corner of New Mexico nestled against the vast expanses of west Texas.

      The completed artwork stretches an impressive four-hundred feet across the horizon

and can be seen from five miles on all sides. It's the artist's hope that "people won't be able

to resist it." "If people stop to look at the sculpture and take pictures, they're more likely to

want to stop in town to eat, fill up with gas, etc.", says Norwood..

The southernmost silhouette, the lead cowboy, points toward the old Jal watering hole and

the town of Jal. The second cowboy is an actual likeness of Henry Scott, obtained from

an old photograph. Mr. Scott was one of the original Jal cowboys who worked on the

Cowden Ranch, and his image helps to add a special touch of realism and authenticity to

the artwork. The other three cowboys were derived from photographs of two present-day

locals, Bert Madera and Silvio Cervantes.

      If you should have the opportunity to visit this friendly, outgoing community to see these

giants of Jal up close, by all means do so. Perhaps you'll be lucky enough to view this

monumental work some late, cool desert evening, with one of the area's spectacular sunsets

in the background and the other-worldly sound of coyotes barking in the distance. If so,

as you're lost in quiet thought contemplating these gargantuan figures--this testament to

how one man's dream evolved into the community realization of an enthusiastic people--

you may discover, as I have, that the real giants of Jal are the folks who live there.





( Copyright © 2000, by Jerry Phillips )





Jerry Phillips is a freelance writer/photographer living in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
and a native of Jal, New Mexico, JHS Class of 1964.