Containing 100 trees on average, it is planted on the frozen Norton Sound in early February and stays until the ice starts to melt.

Charlie Lean, a resident of the town and member of its Rotary Club became keeper of the forest in 2016 and is helped by community volunteers.

[1][2] The animals do not last very long and have to be remade every few years, sometimes by people from the Anvil Mountain Correctional Center.

They wanted to trick visitors who traveled there for the Iditarod, gathering old Christmas trees and putting them on the ice.

Richard Beneville, the mayor of Nome, led the movement to revive the forest, allowing it to prop up again in 2016.