We present and discuss broad band CCD UBV ( I ) _ { C } photometry and low resolution spectroscopy for stars in the region of the open cluster NGC 6996 , located in the North America Nebula .
The new data allow us to tightly constrain the basic properties of this object .
We revise the cluster size , which in the past has been significantly underestimated .
The width of the Main Sequence is mainly interpreted in terms of differential reddening , and indeed the stars ’ color excess E _ { B - V } ranges from 0.43 to 0.65 , implying the presence of a significant and evenly distributed dust component .
We cross-correlate our optical photometry with near infrared from 2MASS , and by means of spectral classification we are able to build up extinction curves for an handful of bright members .
We find that the reddening slope and the total to selective absorption ratio R _ { V } 
toward NGC 6996 are anomalous .
Moreover the reddening corrected colors and magnitudes allow us to derive estimates for the cluster distance and age , which turn out to be 760 \pm 70 pc ( V _ { 0 } - M _ { V } = 9.4 \pm 0.2 ) and \sim 350 Myr , respectively .
Basing on our results , we suggest that NGC 6996 is located in front of the North America Nebula , and does not seem to have any apparent relationship with it .