WILLIAM L. WRIGHT STUDIO THE SAGA OF THE COTTONWOOD TREES AND THE TROLLS OF WESTERN WELD AND EASTERN BOULDER COUNTIES: by William L. "Bill" Wright Trollton village was established in the year 1919 by a group of mild-mannered Trolls that were forced to emigrate from their Swedish forest homes by the reputation gained by their violent cousins in other parts of Scandinavia and Europe. Once accepted by the USA at Ellis Island they proceeded to "go West" as Horace Greeley had admonished. On their westward journey they discovered the large hollow in the old Cottonwood tree across from the extension office in the Boulder County Fairgrounds and decided it would make a great town site as well as having great recreational facilities for their horse-loving children nearby. Since their old Cottonwood tree had now been condemned as unsafe by arborists and was to be cut down they were faced with another displacement. The Trolls have since scattered to other parts of the fairgrounds to start another sub-division with homes fashioned after the carvings of bark from their old home. The Trolls hope to build a community of friendly Trolls and be assimilated into the work-a-day world of the fairgrounds. Following the discovery of the Trolls of Trollton, it was learned by the author that there was also a settlement of the extended family of Trollton Trolls at HopperVille on the Hopper farm located near the old Rinn store in Western Weld County. These Trolls were also seeking to escape the horrible reputations of many of the Scandinavian and European Trolls and enjoy the freedoms that America offered. The HopperVille village site was located in a very old Cottonwood that grew on the bank of an irrigation ditch in the rear of the Hopper home. The availability of the water, and the serenity of the rural vista as well as the inviting old hollow of the old Cottonwood provided an ideal location to put down roots. This tree too has succumbed to age and has supplied this old carver with bark to memorialize the passing of one of God’s giants. As proof of the veracity of this tale, I would invite you to check out the abandoned village site in the large cavern in the stump of the eastern-most tree of the two 80 to 100 year old trees so recently lost and featured in a recent Times-Call story. The stump and remains of HopperVille are still there in Western Weld County to testify of the HopperVille Trolls. These folks have no doubt moved into a nearby Troll-friendly tree only to be discovered again in the future. Photographs of some of these Trollton carvings can be viewed on my website, www.williamlwrightstudio.com . Photographs of some of the HopperVille carvings will soon follow.