Three Giant Trolls Followed Their Stolen Trees to Iowa (8 Photos)

Their forest was gone. The trail led down the Mississippi.

In Thomas Dambo’s story, three troll brothers wake to find that humans have cut down their forest and floated the timber to Clinton, Iowa.

Dambo turns that tale—and the city’s sawmill history—into The Tree Thieves: three giant reclaimed-wood trolls and a hidden installation unlocked with the symbols on their necklaces.

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Helmut — By Thomas Dambo at The Sawmill Museum in Clinton, Iowa

Helmut wraps both arms around a dark planter holding a living tree. The trunk towers over his head, while a visitor barely reaches his ankle.

Placed near The Sawmill Museum, Helmut makes the project’s story literal. He is not stealing the tree. He is taking it back from the people who cut down his forest.

💡 Museum Fact: No historic sawmill has been preserved in Clinton. The Sawmill Museum opened in 2011 and displays an early-20th-century working sawmill along with some original pieces from the Struve Mill.

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Helmut carries the evidence

At sunset, Helmut and the living tree are silhouetted against the sky.

💡 Design Note: On Wisconsin Public Radio, Big River Magazine editor Reggie McLeod described how the visual trick appears to work: the living tree is rooted in the ground, passes unseen through one of Helmut’s legs, and reappears above the false planter.

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Warren — Inside the old Clinton Train Depot

Warren, the oldest of the three brothers, has taken over the old train depot. He reclines beneath the roof while branches spread around his enormous reclaimed-wood body.

The depot connects two parts of Clinton’s industrial story. Iowa PBS describes how logs from Wisconsin and Minnesota floated south to Iowa sawmills; once cut into boards, the lumber could continue by rail. Warren now rests inside that history.

💡 History Fact: The City of Clinton records that local mills produced more than 60 million feet of lumber, 24 million shingles, and 14 million laths in 1869. No Mississippi River city south of St. Paul produced more that year.

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Warren’s patchwork body up close

Up close, Warren’s construction comes into focus. The boards retain their varied colors, shapes, and grain patterns.

💡 Artist Fact: Before becoming known for giant trolls, Dambo worked in Denmark’s hip-hop underground as part of the group Fler Farver. His official biography says the group released nine albums; he also studied interaction design at the Kolding School of Design from 2006 to 2012.

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Marwin — At Bickelhaupt Arboretum in Clinton, Iowa

Marwin lies beneath a 200-year-old oak, with his feet extending toward the trail and branches forming his hair. Dambo said the oak caught his attention, inspiring the troll’s sleeping pose.

Marwin’s head rests against the trunk, making the oak part of the sculpture rather than a backdrop.

💡 Place Fact: Robert and Frances Bickelhaupt created the arboretum in 1970. Their family donated it to Eastern Iowa Community Colleges in 2014, preserving the grounds as a free outdoor museum and living classroom.

Name note: Dambo’s project page uses Marwin, while his Instagram post and Clinton project partners use Marvin. We follow the spelling on the artist’s project page here.

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The humans are the real tree thieves.

Clinton’s lumber history gives the title its second meaning. Logs were floated south from forests in Wisconsin and Minnesota before being processed by the city’s sawmills and used to build communities across the Midwest.

At first, the title seems to point to the trolls returning for the trees. Dambo says the thieves are someone else: “Actually, it’s the humans.”

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Clinton’s old wood became Marwin’s fur

💡 Material Fact: The wood came from several local reclaimed sources. Structural lumber came from logs collected and milled over decades by The Sawmill Museum. Flooring removed from the Lodge at Eagle Point Park became Marwin’s fur, while branches collected by Clinton City Works formed his hair.

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One foot reveals the scale of the build

The construction photo shows volunteers beside the foot section, which was assembled from individually cut pieces of wood.

The upright foot is nearly as tall as the volunteers beside it, revealing the scale before the sculpture was complete.

💡 Volunteer Fact: Carpentry experience was not required. The project’s volunteer plan also listed dismantling pallets, oiling wood, and cleaning among the jobs that could be taught on site.

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A month-long community build

💡 Build Fact: The Tree Thieves took shape over roughly one month. Dambo’s international team worked with more than 100 volunteers, local organizations, and city crews across the Clinton sites.

Dambo compared the method to building a fence: his crew assembled the underlying skeletons, while volunteers attached the reclaimed boards as cladding. Iowa Public Radio reports that Dambo normally makes the trolls’ heads in his Danish studio, then builds their bodies on location with locally reclaimed wood and community volunteers.

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Three necklaces lead to one more secret.

Each troll wears a necklace marked with a symbol. Entering all three symbols on Trollmap unlocks the location of Enchanted Branches, the project’s hidden fourth installation.

We will not reveal its location. Finding it is part of the artwork.

If you go: Marwin is at Bickelhaupt Arboretum, Helmut is on the grounds of The Sawmill Museum, and Warren is inside the old Clinton Train Depot. According to the official Clinton visitor guide, all three troll sites are open from dawn to dusk.

Follow: Thomas Dambo on Instagram

More by Thomas Dambo: 10 Giant Trolls Hiding in Forests, Lakes and Ruins

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