In a clearing amid the dense Adirondack forest, a giant wooden troll raises a sugar maple sapling toward the sky. Children leap from boulder to boulder, laughter rings across the clearing, and one six-year-old boy shouts to his mother: “I feel like I'm in Minecraft!”
This is “Patrick Sapling” — the first permanent sculpture by the Danish artist Thomas Dambo in New York State. The thirty-six-foot troll made of reclaimed materials was installed in September 2026 on the grounds of the Wild Center in Tupper Lake.
In the summer, a temporary exhibition, “Trolls: Save the Humans,” was on display here — six giant figures made of recycled wood. They drew a record number of visitors: over twelve weeks the museum welcomed more than one hundred sixty thousand people, twice as many as the year before. Guests came from all fifty states and thirteen countries.
Tupper Lake is a former lumber town with a population of about five thousand people. After the factories closed, the local economy spent a long time searching for new foundations. The exhibition provided a short but powerful surge in tourism, yet the question remains: will it be possible to turn the seasonal frenzy into a steady flow of visitors?
The permanent troll leaves room for hope. It continues the mission of its temporary brethren — to remind people of caring for nature and recycling waste. The children playing at its feet already perceive the forest not as a backdrop but as a living space.
Art made from trash can revive depressed areas if behind the striking image there is real work with the local community and a long-term strategy.
