If you typed “Little Nis Breckenridge” into a search bar, here’s the short answer: Little Nis doesn’t actually live in Breckenridge. He’s a 20-foot wooden troll built by Danish artist Thomas Dambo in Bernheim Forest, Kentucky, back in 2019. The troll actually tucked beside Breckenridge’s Main Street area is his storybook father, Isak Heartstone, on the Trollstigen Trail. Confusing? Yes. Let’s untangle it.
Why People Think “Little Nis” Is in Breckenridge
The mix-up makes sense once you know the backstory. Thomas Dambo is the artist behind a whole scattered family of wooden giants across the world, and he’s given them a shared fairy tale that links them together even when they’re thousands of miles apart. Breckenridge and Bernheim Forest happen to be two chapters of the same story, which is exactly why the names get tangled online.
The sculptures were created as a family and each has its own unique name: Mama Loumari, Little Nis, and Little Elina, and the father of the little giants, Isak Heartstone, can be found along the Trollstigen Trail in Breckenridge, Colorado. So Little Nis is family to Breckenridge’s troll, but not a resident of the town. He lives roughly 1,200 miles away, in a forest outside Louisville.
So Where Does Little Nis Actually Live?
Little Nis, along with his sister Little Elina and mother Mama Loumari, lives at the 16,137-acre Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest in Clermont, Kentucky, a family of forest giants Thomas Dambo crafted from recycled regional wood to help Bernheim celebrate its 90th anniversary in 2019. Little Nis himself stands about 20 feet tall.
He’s easy to spot once you’re on the right trail. He’s the first giant you’ll come across when trekking through Bernheim — you’ll walk out of the visitor center, down a hill, and around the lake, and there he is. He spends his days peering into a pond at the arboretum, and he’s actually one of the most accessible of the three Forest Giants, close to the arboretum roadway and visible right from the road.
The whole trio was built for a reason beyond just looking cool in the woods. Mama Loumari and her three children — son Little Nis, daughter Little Elina, and a baby still in her belly — form a family Dambo installed in the Bernheim Forest and Arboretum. You can reach the trolls via a 2-mile pathway, and visitors are encouraged to read Dambo’s fairytale about Isak Heartstone before making the trip, since it gives insight into his relationship to Loumari and her kids.
The Fairy Tale That Ties Them Together
Dambo doesn’t just build sculptures and walk away. Each troll family comes with a story, and this one is called “The Great Story of the Little People and the Giant Trolls: While the Weather Got Better.” It explains why Isak is in Colorado while his family waits in Kentucky. Each giant tells part of that whimsical tale — Mama Loumari, the pregnant matriarch, rests peacefully in the forest while her children play nearby, and by the end of winter their father, Isak Heartstone, promises he’ll return soon.
It’s a sweet, slightly melancholy premise for a set of roadside (well, trailside) attractions, and it gives people an actual reason to care about a pile of scrap wood shaped like a giant. Once you know the story, hunting for Little Nis versus hunting for Isak Heartstone feels less like a geography error and more like following a plot.
What You’ll Actually Find Near Breckenridge’s Main Street
If what drew you here was the promise of a troll near Breckenridge’s Main Street, don’t worry, there’s a real one. His name is Isak Heartstone, and he’s the papa in Dambo’s story. Isak Heartstone is a 15-foot-tall wooden troll sculpture located on the Trollstigen Trail in Breckenridge, with the trailhead in the southeast corner of the Stephen C. West Ice Arena parking lot, next to the Illinois Gulch Trailhead.
Main Street comes into the directions constantly, which may be part of why “Little Nis” and “Main Street” end up glued together in search results. You start at the Trollstigen Trailhead on the south end of downtown Breckenridge next to the Stephen C. West Ice Arena, just off of Main Street. The recommended route starts at the Breckenridge Welcome Center at 203 S. Main St., walking about 15 minutes south on Main Street toward Peak 9, then left at the light onto Boreas Pass Road, past Railroad Park to the ice arena, where the Trollstigen Trailhead sits in the southeast corner by the Illinois Gulch trailhead, marked with troll footprints.
He hasn’t always lived there, either. When Isak was first created in 2018, he was installed near the residential Wellington neighborhood down near the East Wellington Trail. Later that year his installation went viral online, drawing so many visitors — some days more than 3,000 — that Breckenridge locals and officials took notice, and traffic complaints eventually led to his removal. Residents and city officials eventually had him rebuilt and relocated, and in 2019 he was moved to his current home near the Stephen C. West Ice Arena parking lot.
Even his name has a small-town origin story. Isak Heartstone got his name after three local girls visited him and gave him a stone shaped like a heart, which Thomas installed as a permanent part of the sculpture so it would forever be known as Breckenridge’s beloved trail troll.
How the Two Trolls Are Connected
Once you know both locations, the story clicks into place. Isak is the wandering father, holding down the fort on a Colorado mountainside. Little Nis, Little Elina, and Mama Loumari are the family he left behind in Kentucky, waiting out the winter. Where the Bernheim giants go after their planned stay is anyone’s guess, though Dambo’s legend suggests they might eventually make their way to Breckenridge, Colorado, to join Isak on the Trollstigen Trail.
For now, though, if your GPS pin is set on Breckenridge and you’re hoping to meet Little Nis in person, you’re about a day’s drive short. Kentucky is where he lives.
Practical Tips for Visiting Either Troll
- For Isak Heartstone in Breckenridge: Visit first thing in the morning, before 10 a.m., or early evening after 5 p.m., if you’re hoping for some one-on-one time with the troll. There’s no dedicated troll parking at the trailhead, so plan to walk, bike, or catch the free trolley from downtown.
- For Little Nis at Bernheim Forest: The giants rest along a two-mile loop trail encompassing the arboretum, and visitors are allowed to take pictures, touch, and even climb on them. Start at the visitor center and follow the lake path to find him first.
- Read the fairy tale first. Knowing the story of Isak and his family makes the hike feel like more than just a photo op, on either end of the country.
The Bottom Line
“Little Nis” is a real, wonderfully strange piece of public art, just not in Colorado. He’s part of a wooden family drama that spans two states, built by an artist who’s turned scrap lumber into a kind of scattered fairy tale across the country. Breckenridge has its own troll worth the walk, Isak Heartstone, tucked just off Main Street on the Trollstigen Trail. If you want to meet the rest of the family, you’ll need to point your car toward Kentucky instead.
NOTE TO THE ADVENTURER: This guide is meant to spark curiosity for what lies beyond the horizon — not to serve as a guarantee. Roads fall into disrepair, buildings are torn down and rebuilt, and properties change hands; 'tis your responsibility to do your own research before setting out. Always heed local and regional law, and always respect ground that isn't your own. Take every entry here as a suggestion, not a decree. This guide's contents were gathered with the aid of artificial intelligence, and like any scout, it will from time to time lead you astray. You assume all risk in following its counsel, and neither this blog nor its author is liable for any loss, injury, or misfortune that results.
