Pat Ragusin
He was looking for the “spirit of the tree” says Pat Ragusin, a Port O’Connor fishing/hunting guide, when he cut into the charred black, 75+ foot tall, old Loblolly pine trunk. He salvaged the old tree from a once heavily wooded Loblolly pine and oak forest that burned in the Sept.2011 fires in Pine Gap, a group of ranches near Delhi in southeast Caldwell County, about 3 miles from the Bastrop County line. The Pine Gap fire occurred simultaneously with the more widely publicized Bastrop County fires that burned an even larger area, devastated Bastrop State Park and burned several thousand homes.
The sculpture was a first of its type for Ragusin, sometimes referred to as “Captain Pic” of Salty Dog Outfitters in Port O’Connor. His usual work day is spent out in the bay on his fishing boat guiding tourist and guests to some of the best fishing spots in Matagorda Bay or hunting for ducks and geese in the marshy fields of Calhoun County. He was on a weekend visit to the ranch of Troy M. Hart, whose home was one of those burned in the 2011 fire when he carved the wood sculpture. It was the sight of those thousands of tall, bare- limbed and charred black skeletal timbers and broken tree trunks that inspired him to try his hand at carving the “wood spirit”. His choice of trees was based on sentiment because it had once held a long rope swing that Ragusins’ wife, April, had swung on as a child.
The old pine had caught fire at the base of the tree. When it fell it left a 4 ft wide crater like hole several feet deep into the soil. Ragusin said the normally soft wood had apparently been hardened by the heat from the fire. He pounded a hammer down on the wood that rang like a rock to prove his point and it didn’t leave a dent.
Although recovery of the forests and land around Pine Gap will take many years, some residents have begun rebuilding their homes. One land owner said the “Wood Spirit” represents past memories and the spirit of the people in Delhi who have been through the fire and are stronger for it.
