A national historical park in Vincennes is asking visitors not to leave painted rocks, called "kindness rocks," on its premises.
Kindness rock are a recent national phenomenon. They're rocks painted with pleasant imagery or nice messages and left outside as part of a scavenger hunt. Facebook and social media groups promote events like painting parties and hunts. The trend has made its way to Indiana, and the painted rocks are showing up around the state.
George Rogers Clark National Historical Park chief ranger, Joe Herron says the message behind the rocks is nice. But he says the rocks interfere with the Leave No Trace rule, which asks parks visitors to leave everything as they found it for future visitors to enjoy.
Herron says the rocks get in the way of the historical statues and landscape in the park.
"It's a different feel when you have something modern, or something hot pink or tie-dye kind of attached to it or even leaned on it, you know, it takes away from that a little bit."
Herron also cited safety concerns, saying the rocks could become hazards if they're left at the park and forgotten about.
"They may end up in the grass and thrown by a mower, or we've had a few of them even put in trees or at the bottom of steps, and that's where we get kind of some safety issues."
Herron says he and other park officials remove any rocks they find at the park and return them to event organizers.