DAYTON, Ohio — The Buckeye State is the home of aviation thanks to the Wright Brothers.

What You Need To Know

  • On Nov. 16, the Aullwood Audobon officially opened its newest “The Troll that Hatched an Egg” exhibit
  • The exhibit includes three large trolls and a birds nest
  • The exhibit was created by Dambo Thomas, a Denmark-native, who has created and built trolls across the world

  • The exhibit highlights how aviation was inspired by nature

And one new outdoor attraction in southwest Ohio is making a connection between nature and airplanes.

At Aullwood Audubon in Dayton is where you’ll find the newest troll installation. It’s made completely out of recycled materials and shows how birds inspired aviation. 

Thomas Dambo is the recycling artist behind the troll installation called “The Troll that Hatched an Egg.”

For more than seven years, the Denmark-native has created and built trolls across the world.

He does it all with recycled materials.

“I’ve always been just making things and being aware of treating the world good and leaving the world as a better place when you leave it as when you entered,” said Dambo.

Dambo, with the help of volunteers, has been working on this project for weeks. There’s a total of three giant trolls: Bo, Bodil and Bibbi. The last one to be finished was Bibbi.

“This sculpture that we’re working on here is maybe like 18-20 feet high, made of recycled wood and I’ve made them all over the world from Chile to China, Australia and Korea,” he said. 

Each troll installation has a storyline.

In one, Bibbi, Bo and Bodil’s daughter is on a journey to solve the mystery of what she sees in the sky. It’s a plane that she mistakes as a bird. 

“The youngest troll, Bibi, gets really interested in what is this big metal bird and it must have some interesting stories to tell because it’s so big and can fly so far,” he said. 

This is one of over 80 troll installations across the world.

It helps highlight Dayton’s place in the history of aviation and how the Wright Brothers studied the flight of birds to help design the first airplane.

Dambo hopes it will help people rediscover nature and prevent recycled items from going to landfills.

“I think it shows something about how many beautiful things you can make out of our trash and I think that that’s what we should aim to do,” he said. 

The exhibit officially opened Nov. 16 at Aullwood Audubon.

Related Stories