DeSoto Magazine March 2015

whom they asked to continue creating light-hearted, playful pieces. Scoggins visited the city in March and May of 2007, eventually turning a total of five trees into a menagerie of sea creatures and water fowl, from a pod of sleek bottle nose dolphins to a congregation of pensive, skyward-peering egrets.

Project completed. The story might have ended there but for Marlin Miller, a renowned wood sculptor from Ft. Walton Beach, Florida. Marlin heard the tale of the Katrina Trees and recalling how Biloxi residents had volunteered in his community following 2004’s Hurricane Ivan, decided to return the favor. After getting the green light from Creel, the artist arrived in December 2007, donating his talent and two days of time he spent carving four trees into dolphins, egrets and a seahorse. While the sculptures are stunning, equally remarkable is the reception Miller received from the townsfolk of Biloxi.

“When people found out I wasn’t taking any money for it, that I was doing it for free,” Miller explained, “they would try to give me money. But I wouldn’t take it. I’d get up really high in these trees, working in a man lift 20 or 30 feet in the air and at the end of the day I’d come down and find gifts people had left for me at the base of the trunk, with little notes on them. I’ve found prayer shawls, jars of jam, pottery, tea cup sets. I was humbled that it meant so much to people.”

Galvanized by the reception, Miller returned again and again to Biloxi over the next few years, eventually spreading out along the Gulf Coast and carving Katrina Trees from Fairhope, Alabama, to Hammond, Louisiana. Along the way Stihl began providing free chainsaws, with hotels contributing complimentary rooms and meals. The national media picked up on the story and “NBC Nightly News,” CNN and the “Today Show” among others, ran features on Miller and the trees. Robin Roberts of “Good Morning America” became a buddy after he dedicated a mammoth, 25-foot-tall statue of an eagle in Pass Christian to her father, a Tuskegee Airman. It’s been, as Miller is quick to admit, a great ride.

“They say if you give, you get back,” noted Miller. “That was never the intention but it really did happen with us. Working with the trees has completely changed my life. But it’s also been exciting DeSoto 63