Wolfeboro's Giant Troll Has Backers, a Budget, and a Target Year. What It Doesn't Have Yet Is a Site.

On September 2, the Wolfeboro Select Board voted unanimously to set aside the proposed Thomas Dambo troll "until a suitable site is found." No one on the board argued against the sculpture. The vote came from somewhere more practical. The first spot offered, on town land near the wastewater treatment area and Abenaki Ski Area, raised questions about plant access, parking, and traffic that nobody could answer that night.

That matters for anyone in town who has been following the idea since summer. The volunteers behind it have a nonprofit, a cost estimate, the artist's attention, and a 2027 goal. The first thing they need now is a place the town will agree to, and it has to work for the crowds these sculptures tend to bring.

What Wolfeboro Was Asked to Host

Thomas Dambo is a Copenhagen artist who has built more than 200 giant trolls from recycled and locally sourced materials. They stand on five continents and in 20 U.S. states, and his stated goal is a troll in every state. His own state-by-state directory doesn't list one in New Hampshire.

The Wolfeboro Troll Keepers formed as a nonprofit for one purpose, which is bringing a Dambo troll here. Peg Mongiello and Cathy Dragonfly co-chair the group. Justin Brown, Kevin Madden, and Chris Tibbetts make up the rest of the board. Mongiello has seen 40 of the trolls around the world. The group has also talked with host towns in Colorado, Michigan, Rhode Island, North Carolina, and Washington about how it went for them.

According to the Conway Daily Sun's report on the pitch, the plan works like this:

• The troll's giant head would ship from Copenhagen. Local businesses would supply recycled materials for the body.
• Volunteers would build it over about two weeks, supervised by Dambo's team.
• Mongiello put the cost at about $350,000. That covers Dambo's site visit, the design, construction, housing and feeding his 12-person crew, and long-term maintenance.
• The group says it has private donations from local residents already and that no taxpayer money would be used.
• Planned education partnerships include the Children's Center, Brewster Academy, and the Lakes Region Technological Center at Kingswood Regional High School.

Dambo came to Wolfeboro in April to scout locations. The school partnerships are still plans. None has been announced as underway.

How the Proposal Has Moved Since July

The First Site Came With Questions About the Plant Next Door

The spot proposed in July is town-owned land near the wastewater treatment area and Abenaki Ski Area. It can be reached from Waumbeck Road and Pine Hill Road. The Planning and Development Department had already approved the location, on condition that the Troll Keepers get the other town approvals they need and write a maintenance and monitoring plan.

The trouble was what sits beside it. The treatment plant is decades old and may be expanded or replaced soon. Selectwoman Linda Murray raised that possible construction as a factor, and board members also brought up traffic.

A summary of the July 1 meeting video says the board wanted written answers before voting on anything. It asked the town's wastewater consultant, Woodard & Curran, and the public works director whether a sculpture near the plant could get in the way of future upgrades and access. It also asked the Troll Keepers for a term sheet and a proposed license agreement covering maintenance, parking, traffic, and liability.

None of those questions is about whether Wolfeboro wants a troll. Every one is about what a troll does to the ground around it: the trucks that may need to reach the plant, the cars that will come to see the sculpture, and who is responsible when either causes a problem.

Why the Board Keeps Returning to Parking

The nearest example of what can go wrong is two states west. In South Londonderry, Vermont, Dambo finished a 30-foot troll called Lost Finn on private land on July 5, 2023. It was his 117th troll and his first in Vermont. Within weeks, the Valley News reported that visitors had filled a parking area built for nearly 10 vehicles and were parking along Winhall Hollow Road despite a sign asking them not to. Vermont State Police received complaints about vehicles blocking traffic. Landowner Elizabeth Dugan then closed the trail that gave the public access. She wrote:

"We certainly did not expect an overwhelming volume of vehicles parking along, and blocking, Winhall Hollow Road. This creates a safety hazard and places an unfair burden on the town and our neighbors."

That report is from August 2023, and it says nothing about whether Lost Finn is open to visitors today. It does show how fast a troll can outgrow the space around it, and in that case the landowners had planned for visitors.

The other nearby example turned out differently. Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay has five Dambo trolls named Birk, Røskva, Gro, Søren, and Lilja, and Dambo's directory dates them to 2021. They are set up as a scavenger hunt across the gardens' grounds. That site was already built to take in visitors before the trolls arrived. The land near Abenaki and the treatment plant was built to do other jobs.

September 2: A Site Tour and a Vote to Wait

When the troll returned to the agenda in September, the board moved it up so that Alexa Piekarski could speak before catching a flight home to Denmark. The minutes describe her as the artist's wife. Piekarski said she grew up in New Hampshire and had long hoped to bring a troll to her home state. She said the trolls use about 95% recycled materials. She pointed to a recent exhibition in Milwaukee with what she called an estimated $4 million increase in economic activity in the first month, and to the Boothbay gardens as another success. Those figures are her own and were not reviewed by the board.

Cathy Dragonfly, listed as Catherine in the town minutes, told the board she and Piekarski had looked at several spots that day. She said she wanted the site settled as soon as possible so fundraising could begin this fall. She described the nonprofit as a 501(c)(3) that would pay all legal and insurance costs and was asking only to use town land.

She also explained how the group wants to handle the first rush of visitors. The plan is a 2027 installation with a soft opening in fall and winter, because early crowds are large and the committee doesn't want to compete with summer tourism. The Conway Daily Sun had reported an earlier target of early September 2027. Neither version has been set as a firm date, and both depend on finding a site first.

Linda Murray said the board needed a different site before it could act. John Thurston said he had looked into town infrastructure and the number of people coming to town. Dave Senecal moved to table the discussion until a suitable site is found. Thurston seconded, and everyone voted in favor.

The Troll Keepers' own timeline puts fundraising after the site is settled. Since that vote, the town has not published a fundraising total, a new location, or a signed license, and the troll isn't on either of the next two posted agendas.

What to Watch For Next

The next public step would be a new site going back to the Select Board. When it does, the board's earlier requests suggest what it will ask:

1. Access. Can service vehicles, and any future construction, still reach nearby town infrastructure?
2. Parking. Where do visitors park, and how many cars can the spot hold on a busy weekend?
3. Traffic. Which roads carry the visitors, and how do the neighbors on them feel about it?
4. A written agreement. A license or lease that covers maintenance, monitoring, and liability.
5. Funding. Whether private money reaches the roughly $350,000 estimate once fundraising begins.

Select Board agendas and minutes are posted on the Town of Wolfeboro's Agenda Center. A troll item will show up there before a location is announced anywhere else.

Many of the questions Wolfeboro is asking about the troll, including access, parking, neighboring uses, and who carries the liability, come up whenever land is put to a new public use. If you own property near Pine Hill Road, Waumbeck Road, or any site that appears in a future proposal and want to talk through how a change nearby could affect it, Gail McCarthy is glad to go over the details with you. Let's Connect.