Trolling in Clinton, Iowa
A Week in Davenport, IA | Walking the Duck Creek Trail | Finding Trolls around Clinton, IA | May 2026
Exactly one month after leaving the Quad Cities, we returned for one more week of work. We drove over on a Monday and stayed at our go-to hotel off of I-74. We had considered staying downtown to switch things up, but we just like our usual spot and favorite restaurants too much to give it up. Curtis’ work days were shorter than they had been the month prior, and with more daylight we were able to enjoy our time here outside a bit more. We continued our hobby of Walking Long Distances on the Duck Creek Trail, and I went for more long walks during the day around Bettendorf neighborhoods. It was a good week overall, fun to just have a little taste of the hotel/restaurant/work life before Curtis has his longer break between jobs in the summer.
On Friday, it was time to leave Davenport, so we packed up and checked out of the hotel. Given a whole day to make the short drive back to my parent’s house, we decided to make the drive more fun by visiting some new attractions that have arrived in Clinton, IA. We drove into Illinois and took the River Road North, then crossed into Clinton on hwy 136 and navigated to our first stop.
The focus of today’s adventure was to see 3 of the newest Troll statues by Thomas Dambo, which had officially been open to the public at the beginning of May! We started our troll hunting adventure at the Sawmill Museum, first stopping at the museum to get a Silos and Smokestacks stamp, then walked over to the nearby troll, “Helmut”. Out of the 3 in this area, this one was our favorite and the most creative, with the statue being built around a tree, looking like he’s holding it as a potted plant. There were several other groups and families here checking out the troll — it was fun to see how many people were so excited about Clinton’s newest members! But thankfully the school bus full of kids didn’t arrive until we were leaving. 🙂 After seeing the troll, we walked a little on the Discovery Trail along the Mississippi River before continuing on our way.
Our next stop was at the next troll to the South, placed in the historic Clinton depot. We parked in Riverview Park and enjoyed the short walk over to the depot. When we arrived, we were a little confused by all the signs on the door (Caution, danger, do not enter…) but a worker stepped out and welcomed us in, and gave us an info card that had the addresses of all 3 trolls on it. The entire interior of this building is an exhibit on its own, as it has been turned into a maze through walls made of sticks and twigs from floor to ceiling, leading back to the troll, “Warren,” who takes up half the room.
The final troll, “Marvin,” resides in Bickelhaupt Arboretum. We walked through some of the gardens before reaching the troll who is relaxing under a tree on the Northwest side of the park. While we were here, we got to talking with a local who told us all about how Clinton got to be the home to 3 out of 4 of Iowa’s trolls. Several years ago, one of the workers at the Sawmill Museum learned about Thomas Dambo’s work and how he creates these trolls out of reclaimed wood, and how he is working on creating statues for all 50 US states. She started to try to get ahold of him, campaigning for Clinton to be the recipient of the Iowa trolls because of its history in the lumber industry. She sent him all sorts of info on the town, locations that could be hosts for trolls, even drone footage of the area. Finally, last winter he responded to her requests and it was arranged for the town to receive 3 trolls (Iowa’s 4th troll is in Elkhorn at the Danish Windmill Museum). He constructed the heads, hands, and feet at his workshop in Denmark, then sent them over and put them all together using local reclaimed wood, such as flooring from a pavilion that had been replaced. Dambo spent about 3 weeks in Iowa this spring putting it all together with a group of other artists from Denmark, and a host of local volunteers as well, then they were all declared finished and open to the public at the beginning of May.
When we were finished with our troll hunting, we drove to the downtown area where we got a light lunch and drinks from 392 Cafe. We finished our adventure in Clinton at Eagle Ridge Park, checking out the tower and views over the Mississippi. We had always talked about taking a day trip here when working in the Quad Cities, and were glad we finally had the chance to — and the trolls took us to all the parks and attractions we would’ve wanted to visit anyway! We can’t wait til our next trip West so we can see the fourth troll!
A quick note for anyone who is also planning on finding the trolls in Clinton: There is also a fourth ‘creature’ created by Dambo, and the three trolls are all wearing necklaces with clues for where that creature resides. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but pay attention to the clues, and if you need help, I’m sure there are many people in Clinton who can point you in the right direction, especially the workers at the Sawmill Museum or at the Depot!
