BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. — Piece by piece, in the woods of Breckenridge Isak Heartstone is rising once again.
If you aren't aware, Isak Heartstone is a wooden troll. He became a tourist attraction in Breckenridge last year after he was installed near a trail, but he was later removed due to neighbor concerns about overcrowding and noise from the inconsiderate Instagrammers who came from far and wide to pose with Isak.
In February, after months of special committee meetings, it was determined that he would be moved to a new location and rebuilt.
The backstory
Danish artist Thomas Dambo built a 15-foot wooden troll out of pieces of trashed pallets in Breckenridge in August 2018.
It became an overnight sensation as people came from all over the area to see the troll that Dambo named Isak Heartstone.
But its popularity brought overcrowding and noise to the neighborhood. They had to disassemble Isak in November.
The return of Isak Heartstone
In May 2019, the City of Breckenridge found a new location for the giant troll and brought back the artist to reconstruct Isak piece by piece. Dambo said it will look a little different this time.
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"He is no longer in a rocky setting. He used to love playing with those boulders on the trail. Now he is in the forest, and he is there holding his favorite tree and enjoying nature," Dambo said.
The city of Breckenridge will construct a new trail around Isak when he is complete. Dambo and his crew moved up their construction work to fit into a window of nice weather. Summit County is forecast to get hit with another winter storm next week.
Dambo said it will only take a few days to complete the troll's rebuild, but it will take about a month to complete the trail around him. Breckenridge hopes to open it back up to the public sometime in June.
Dambo said he's made 50 other trolls around the world, and the purpose of his art is clear and clean.
“I do my art to make people understand how much value there is in our trash, and why it’s important to recycle,” said Dambo.
Dambo said that Isak's head was made in Denmark out of shelves he found in a dollar store in Copenhagen. The skin and fur are made of scrap wood and pallets he found at the Breckenridge Golf Course, and behind various stores in Summit County. And his hair is made of downed tree branches along the path where he is being rebuilt.
Dambo said he was very disappointed with the way people treated the previous location of Isak Heartstone, because the recycled troll sculptures he builds are supposed to represent cleanliness and respect of nature.
He asks visitors this summer to be on their best behavior.
“If you behave good and treat nature good, and you don’t litter all over, the trolls they will embrace you, but if you behave badly, and treat nature bad, then the trolls will catch you, and snatch you, and eat you,” said Dambo.
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