Angel Tree Katrina sculpture

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, United States

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

A dead oak carved into angels by chainsaw artist Dayle Lewis, near the foot of Demontluzin Street at Beach Boulevard in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Three people and a dog clung to the tree during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

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Angel Tree Katrina sculpture

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Approximate location · 30.312° N, 89.331° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

In Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, a hurricane-battered oak was carved into angels, and it is listed by Coastal Mississippi tourism as one of the town's Angel Trees.

According to Mississippi Today in 2020, the sculpture was carved by Dayle Lewis from a dead oak that saved three people and a dog. WLOX reported that the three survivors commissioned Lewis, a chainsaw artist from Indiana who came to the Bay after the storm, to carve the tree, and that the angel tree at Demontluzin was moved to its present spot. A 2014 Roadside America visitor tip adds that the figures were set in concrete a few hundred feet from where the tree stood.

The Demontluzin angel is one of several carved trees by Lewis around Old Town. In 2018, WLOX counted four: two in Cedar Rest Cemetery, one in front of Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church and the one at the foot of Demontluzin Street at Beach Boulevard. Coastal Mississippi, the regional tourism body, gives a longer list: two in Cedar Rest Cemetery on Second Street, one at Beach Boulevard in front of Our Lady of the Gulf Church, one near Century Hall and two on the first block of Demontluzin Avenue. It describes the Demontluzin Avenue angel as a life raft for three Katrina survivors and their dog.

WLOX quoted a local tour guide who said the angels represent rebirth. In July 2025, ahead of the storm's 20th anniversary, WLOX reported that Hancock County artist Tami Curtis-Guy had made a commemorative painting, Hope Soars, inspired by Lewis's carving.

The carvings are outdoors in the public streetscape of Old Town. Coastal Mississippi's directory lists them under Angel Trees of Bay St. Louis.

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PRACTICAL

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WHAT TO EXPECT

An outdoor carved-wood sculpture in Bay St. Louis's Old Town, seen from the street at no charge. A 2018 WLOX report said tours of the angel trees could be arranged through the Hancock Tourism Bureau; ask locally whether that is still offered.

ACCESS

Near the foot of Demontluzin Street at Beach Boulevard, Bay St. Louis, on public streetscape. Other Angel Trees are listed elsewhere in the Old Town, including Cedar Rest Cemetery and in front of Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church.

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Current

Katrina tree eagle sculpture (17 ft) War Memorial Park

Pass Christian, Mississippi

A live oak damaged by Hurricane Katrina was carved into an eagle by Marlin Miller of Fort Walton Beach, Florida, in War Memorial Park on Highway 90, Pass Christian, Mississippi. The sculpture is dedicated to Col. Lawrence Roberts, a Tuskegee Airman, according to Miller (CNN, 2009). Sources give its height as 17 or 25 feet.

Public art

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7.9 km away

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