Graffiti defaces trails

Graffiti with white supremacist messaging appeared on and along paved pedestrian trails in Cloquet and Carlton earlier this week.

"White Man Zone" was painted on the walls of the underpass on the north side of the pedestrian bridge over the St. Louis River in Cloquet. Farther down the wall was the Nazi SS Lightning Bolts symbol, commonly used in the white supremacy movement.

Repeatedly, in both Cloquet and along the Willard Munger State Trail in Carlton, someone scrawled the website address for Patriot Front, a white supremacist group, with a cross drawn over the "o" in each word like a rifle crosshair.

The Cloquet Police Department estimated the vandalism occurred sometime between Sunday night and Tuesday. Walkers along the Munger trail in Carlton said they noticed the graffiti early this week.

There were lots of bikers, walkers and a few inline skaters out on the Munger Trail Wednesday.

"I just think this is not your run-of-the-mill graffiti. This is a threat," Carlton's Barbara Frey said.

Frey is better-equipped to assess the messaging than your average hiker, as the director emeritus of the University of Minnesota's human rights program.

"It's meant to intimidate," she said. "Anytime you have crosshairs, and also just the nature of graffiti, is really meant to intimidate and scare people away."

The Patriot Front website proclaims the group wants to "reclaim America" - another phrase spraypainted in Cloquet. The website makes it plain that it's a white supremacist group. "Our people, born to this nation of our European race must reforge themselves as a new collective capable of asserting our right to cultural independence."

Videos on the homepage show photos of masked men carrying flags, running with shields in hand, marching, making stew, doing pushups and yes, spray painting graffiti.

"GPAC" was also painted in numerous locations, possibly an acronym for a group known as the Great Plains Active Club. According to the Anti-Defamation League, a well-known and longstanding anti-hate organization, Active Clubs are a nationwide network of localized white supremacist crews who see themselves "as fighters training for an ongoing war against a system they claim is deliberately plotting against the white race."

Cloquet's Shari Williams posted photos Tuesday of the damage in town to the Cloquet Neighbors Facebook page. By Wednesday afternoon, there were 66 comments largely condemning the action.

"The only way to combat darkness is to throw as much light at it as you can," Williams told the Pine Knot News. "I hope the person or people responsible for this find a better path to live by."

Monaa Elmadari was a little more direct online.

"We, Cloquet residents, take a stand and do not tolerate hate towards anyone," she wrote. "The actions [by] a supremacy group around our area [are] not condoned by the general population and will not divide anyone, but bring us all closer together. ... Now leave our city alone and don't come back. You are not welcome here!" posted Elmadari, who uses the moniker "Amunder Yabed" on Facebook.

This is the second time in the past few years that Nazi symbols have cropped up in Cloquet. In 2021, vandals spraypainted the back of the portable bathroom shelter at Veterans Park with a swastika and a Star of David, in what appeared to be an anti-Semitic message.

Cloquet city administrator Tim Peterson said the city plans additional police patrols to try to prevent any further graffiti.

"Obviously, the written words and symbols don't portray the inclusiveness we aim for in our community," Peterson said. "The vast majority of people want to be welcoming and inclusive to all."

Information wanted

Cloquet police released a news advisory on the graffiti Tuesday. While city staff had washed off or painted over all the graffiti between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday midday, police are looking for any information that could help them identify the person or people responsible for the vandalism.

So is Mary Brown Straka, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources supervisor of parks and trails in the Moose Lake region, which includes Jay Cooke State Park and the Munger trail.

Straka said graffiti was found on a St. Louis River bridge, the Munger trail, rocks along the trail and even on public road signs.

"Anytime someone defaces our public structures like that, there is a cost to citizens," she said. "We see these representations or words that look offensive, and it is heartbreaking in a way to see that damage to areas that should be welcoming and friendly."

Straka said it's important that people report graffiti to an appropriate unit. In the case of parks and trails, that's the DNR information center at [email protected] or 651-296-6157.

Anyone who knows who might have painted the graffiti in locations outside of state parks and trails is asked to report information to the Cloquet Police Department or the Carlton County Sheriff's Office by calling 911. People can also anonymously text TIP CLOQUETPD, followed by the message to 888777. Re eference Case No. CQ24001182 when contacting Cloquet police.