Dr. Peters, Crossing works among creations

About 20 minutes west of Round Rock, down a winding road and tucked back in the small city of Jonestown, Jim Thomas is meticulously scraping and shaping a wax figure that will serve as the mold of a bronze statue commemorating the late Dr. Robert Peters.

If Thomas had his way, he said, he would have been sculpting the figure with Peters sitting in his shop, modeling for the artist who is also responsible for the bronze statues at Chisholm Trail Crossing.

But it wasn't to be. Just over one week after sitting down with the sculptor, Thomas recalled, Peters grew ill and died, leaving Thomas to work from photographs and family descriptions.

Still, the details are unmistakably "Doc Peters," right down to the Texas A&M University class ring, full eyebrows and broad smile. Eventually, the wax will spawn a ceramic casing which will give way to the bronze statue that will sit in Round Rock for years to come as part of a community effort to remember the doctor.

"When you do that, you make an emotional commitment to do it right," Thomas said, adding that the community's involvement "carried a lot of weight with me personally."

The Peters sculpture will, once finished, sit on a public bench where Thomas said he hopes it will evoke an emotional response from those who sit next to the doctor.

"If I can evoke that out of a people with a piece of cold metal, I've done my job," Thomas said.

The statue is a continuation of Thomas' longstanding relationship with Round Rock and creating public works of art. The five bronze sculptures at Chisholm Trail Crossing created to evoke a river crossing of early settlers were all created by Thomas.

Thomas started sculpting more than 40 years ago as a hobby while living in Amarillo, Texas. At the time, he was in the newspaper business and would mostly sculpt and drink beer with friends as a hobby.

Eventually, however, he pursued the artistic endeavor professionally as he grew more interested and adept at the act of sculpting bronze works.

While Thomas did have some background in chemistry and metallurgy from college, he said his learning process was mostly one of trial and error.

"We just did things, screwed it up and did them again," he said.

To hear him describe his process makes it sound far less haphazard. The creation of a bronze statue like the one of Dr. Peters or the ones at Chilsholm Trail Crossing is a multistep process that involves wax and ceramic castings, heating materials to thousands of degrees, and an understanding of how certain materials interact with others at different temperatures. At some points, it's enough to make a chemistry teacher dizzy.

Speaking of dizzy, the fumes, temperatures and noise in Thomas' workshop are enough to spin any unprepared visitor. Thomas says the foundry business is dangerous and hard on your body, all while pointing out this scar or that burn accumulated over several decades.

When asked if he's ever had any major injuries from all of the cutting, welding and heat, he smiles a bit and says "define major."

Yet even at the age of 76, cuts and all, Thomas is still refining his craft, still trying to find ways to improve on a process and an art that has decorated Round Rock for more than a decade.

"You never get 'good enough,'" he said. "If you get good enough, it's time to quit."

Chisholm Trail Crossing

Dedicated in 2003, Chisholm Trail Crossing park features five statues created by Jim Thomas that are meant to evoke a river crossing near the famous round rock.

The Pioneer Woman is modeled after Sissy Peckham and donated by Round Rock residents Sissy and Bill Peckham. The Pioneer Boy is modeled after Riley Koughan and donated by Ruth Koughan, Riley Koughan's grandmother.

The sculpture of the longhorn laying under the shade of a tree was donated by the Quick family, whose story is commemorated on a nearby plaque. The Quick family came from Sweden to Round Rock in 1885, according to the plaque.

The Bell Steer sculpture, which was the first of the five commissioned, was donated by Dell Inc. and represents the lead steer on cattle drives. The sculpture Goin' to Water shows another steer and was commissioned by Edward Reyes Torres, Mary Zordan Torres and Gloria Torres Zamarripa.