Racist, anti-Semitic and pro-Donald Trump graffiti has appeared on a cliffside of Mount Tom, sparking outrage from local residents on social media.
In green, white and blue spraypaint, messages including "gas the Jews," "Kill all n******,"Trump 2016" and a swastika now overlook the Mount Tom State Reservation on the border of Holyoke and Easthampton. The graffiti appeared in early November, prior to Election Day, according to an eyewitness.
Images of the graffiti, posted on an Easthampton Facebook group, drew quick condemnation. "Awful," one commenter wrote; "Vile, disgusting and deplorable," wrote another.
It is not the first time that unidentified people have spraypainted Mount Tom -- though never before with such violent, political and racially charged language.
Naima Workman, a Northampton resident, organized a cleanup of Mount Tom's graffiti in early October. Someone -- she suspects teenagers who use the park at night -- had spraypainted both rock faces and trees on the trails.
"I go hiking there all the time and it was getting to the point where something had to be done about this," she said in an interview. "The graffiti has been up there for decades, but it was starting to get more and more obnoxious."
Before the cleanup, the graffiti was mostly unoffensive -- love notes and names -- though some messages said "go home, this is America," Workman said.
But after her group cleaned up much of the graffiti last month, it returned with a more vicious tone. Workman believes the new graffiti is a response by the original graffiti artists to its removal, though she cannot be sure.
"I know people are thinking it's in response to the election, but I'm 99 percent sure it's a backlash directly to the cleanup," she said.
The new graffiti lashed out at Jews and Mexicans, and began just days after the cleanup. But Stephen Tremblay, who took photographs of the new vandalism that were posted on Facebook, said the most noxious messages were painted between Nov. 1 and Nov. 6.
"I discovered the graffiti on Sunday," Tremblay said. "There's been tons of graffiti up there, and there's more and more graffiti every time I go. But the swastikas and hateful stuff wasn't."
Tremblay, who hikes Mount Tom with his dog two to three times per week, said the graffiti was disheartening.
"It was incredibly disappointing. This is kind of my temple where I go to relax and get away from all the madness this election has created," he said. "I didn't feel angry, just kind of disappointed."
He also said that teenagers often use the mountain to party at night, often leaving trash and sometimes lighting prohibited fires. But he cannot be sure they were responsible for the graffiti.
In a statement, the Anti-Defamation League condemned the graffiti and said it was monitoring the situation.
"This incident at Mt. Tom contradicts the values upon which America was founded and warrants condemnation from everyone," ADL New England Director Robert Trestan said. "Now more than ever, the community must be united in our condemnation of all forms of hate and bigotry. The country is experiencing a post-election uptick of hate incidents and ADL is closely monitoring and responding to these reports."
Workman said that new cleanup efforts are being organized.
The Holyoke and Easthampton police departments said they had not received any reports of graffiti on the mountain.