VIDALIA, La – Find Jim Bowie’s knife this week and there could be money in it for you.

In connection with Vidalia’s 11th annual Jim Bowie Festival, based on a legendary knife fight involving Bowie on a nearby sandbar, a plastic bowie knife will be hidden somewhere in the town. &uot;It will be somewhere outside, on public property – not inside any buildings,&uot;&160;said Linda Gardner, director of the Vidalia Chamber of Commerce, who is helping coordinate the festival.

Clues to the knife’s location will be printed in The Natchez Democrat and broadcast on Oldies 107.1 beginning Sunday.

The person who finds the knife will win $50 – or $100 if he or she is wearing a Jim Bowie Festival T-shirt.

Advance events like the knife hunt, which is being done for the first time, will generate needed publicity for the event and hopefully attract more people to this year’s festival, said Cliff Merritt, who is chairman of the Festival Committee. &uot;With new events like the knife hunt, this year’s festival should be bigger and better than ever,&uot;&160;Merritt said.

The festival will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 18 at the old courthouse on Carter Street.

Merritt hopes that up to 3,000 people will gather for this year’s festival, compared to last year’s estimated attendance of 1,500.

In past years, Merritt’s wife Debra helped coordinate the Peach Festival in their former home of Ruston, La. The knife hunt is based on a similar event held before that festival, Cliff Merritt said.

The bowie knife hunt is being sponsored by The Sandbar Restaurant.

Jim Bowie Festival T-shirts can be bought at the Vidalia Chamber of Commerce office, Louisiana Central Bank, Concordia Bank and the Curiosity Shoppe and range in price from $7.50 to $12.