Chicago started it all with cows. Santa Fe trotted out ponies. It was roosters in Miami, pigs in Cincinnati and pelicans in Pensacola. Now, Montgomery and Prattville are getting fishing lures.

Thirty giant fiberglass sculptures will be decorated by local artists and displayed on street corners for seven weeks this fall. The public art project is a fundraiser for the Alabama River Clean Water Partnership, a non-profit advocacy group.

"I guess we were trying to think big in putting 30 giant lures around Montgomery and Prattville," said Ashley Henderson, the group's facilitator.

The partnership plans to unveil the lures at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Riverwalk Amphitheater. Mann's Bait Co. in Eufaula gave permission to model the lures on one of its designs.

Each lure is 6 feet long, stands 57 inches tall and weighs about 70 pounds. They're being made by a factory in Nebraska.

Alabama Power Co. is paying for the lures, which cost $900 each, and giving each artist a $250 stipend for materials.

"The Alabama River is a treasure to the state of Alabama," said John Grogan, the utility's environmental compliance manager.

Partnership leaders spent a good bit of 2006 determining whether it was possible to pull off such a major project, Henderson said. They worried Prattville Mayor Jim Byard and Montomgery Mayor Bobby Bright wouldn't go along with the idea and they worried artists wouldn't be interested.

In the end, all the fretting was for nothing. The leaders of both cities eagerly signed on and artists lined up.

Local galleries and art associations helped put out the call for design submissions. No fewer than 35 came in.

Some are a bit modern, while others are almost whimsical.

One shows a fishing lure entangled in fishing line. Another is a mosaic made of materials found in the river.

"Think Big" shows a small fish trying to devour the large lure. Henderson thinks that design shows what the partnership is doing -- thinking big.

The artists, she said, get public recognition and a chance at one of two $1,000 prizes -- one awarded by a panel of judges, the other by the public.

When the lures go on display Sept. 22 -- no exact locations have been decided but 10 will be in downtown Montgomery -- each will carry a message from the river itself. For example, "Plant a tree for me" and "Soak it all in. I prefer porous pavements." Art and game lovers can try to match the lures to the sayings in a scavenger-like hunt on the partnership's Web site.

"We wanted to come up with something to attract attention to our educational programs," Henderson said. "We thought we would try to do it with the lures."

The Alabama River Clean Water Partnership is asking the business community to sponsor the lures. A $5,000 "keeper" sponsorship lets a business keep its lure after the exhibition. For $2,500, a businss can be a "catch-and-release" sponsor. The "catch-and-release" lures go on the auction block after the exhibition.

Henderson hopes the sponsorships and auction will raise more than $100,000 for the partnership's educational and river improvement efforts.

The education projects include a fifth-grade notebook curriculum, a homeowners workshop on septic systems and a program for new businesses on how they impact the river.

The improvement projects include a restoration plan for Cypress Creek in downtown Montgomery, a watershed plan for Pintala Creek and the removal of excess sediment from selected creeks in Autauga County.