Cleanup and Graffiti Removal at Black Mountain

It's infuriating to any decent human that some fools find beautiful places and destroy them. Case in point, Black Mountain, a rock town in Cumberland County, and a segment of the Cumberland Trail State Park has been a location growing in popularity with these idiots.

I became aware of some black spray paint on the boulders below a few months ago and it had been sitting in my mind for some time. The amazing Chattanooga photographer, Kelli Lewis and I planned to catch sunrise there on Saturday, and it was decided that we would put some time into cleaning up and attempting to remove the vandalism there. Terri Likens, Caleb Ottinger, Brandon Mullins, and Cody Julian also joined us participating in the cleanup as well as the graffiti removal.

Upon arrival I noticed plenty of other recent graffiti in the form of blue and green spray paint. Given the vastness of the surface covered in spray paint, I decided to treat only select areas this day.

Here are the before photographs by location:

Green Paint Pen
Green paint pen, cleanup and graffiti removal Black Mountain, Cumberland Trail SP, Cumberland County, Tennessee 1

Black Spray Paint
Black spray paint, cleanup and graffiti removal Black Mountain, Cumberland Trail SP, Cumberland County, Tennessee 1

Blue Spray Paint spot 1
Blue spray paint, cleanup and graffiti removal Black Mountain, Cumberland Trail SP, Cumberland County, Tennessee 1

Blue Spray Paint spot 2
Blue spray paint, cleanup and graffiti removal Black Mountain, Cumberland Trail SP, Cumberland County, Tennessee 2

Blue Spray Paint spot 3
Blue spray paint, cleanup and graffiti removal Black Mountain, Cumberland Trail SP, Cumberland County, Tennessee 3

Blue Spray Paint spot 4 - not cleaned for safety reasons
Blue spray paint, cleanup and graffiti removal Black Mountain, Cumberland Trail SP, Cumberland County, Tennessee 4

CitriStrip was applied and left to soak for 30-40 minutes for each location. One or more people used water in a spray bottle and sponges to remove. Our results were mixed, but we believe that all the spray paint sites were at least faded by our effort. The paint pen vandalism was completely removed. Below are the after photos. We would have waited until the water dried to photograph them, but an incoming thunderstorm forced us off the mountain.

Green Paint Pen
Green paint pen, cleanup and graffiti removal Black Mountain, Cumberland Trail SP, Cumberland County, Tennessee 4

Black Spray Paint
Black spray paint, cleanup and graffiti removal Black Mountain, Cumberland Trail SP, Cumberland County, Tennessee 2

Blue Spray Paint spot 1
Blue spray paint, cleanup and graffiti removal Black Mountain, Cumberland Trail SP, Cumberland County, Tennessee 8

Blue Spray Paint spot 2
Blue spray paint, cleanup and graffiti removal Black Mountain, Cumberland Trail SP, Cumberland County, Tennessee 9

Blue Spray Paint spot 3
Blue spray paint, cleanup and graffiti removal Black Mountain, Cumberland Trail SP, Cumberland County, Tennessee 10

Much more work remains. Most people don't want to see vandalism, and it infuriates most people. If most people would act on this, then we could make short work of of the vandalism at Black Mountain and send a clear message to the people who do these things - Don't put your stupidity on display.

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