What happens when a quiet corner of the country goes viral for being the perfect seasonal spot to get that perfect Instagram post?
Upset locals, who are not going viral but have to deal with the consequences of briefly becoming IG famous.
Until recently, the number of leaf-peepers visiting Pomfret was more trickle than torrent. But ever since images of Sleepy Hollow Farm, a 115-acre private property set on a rustic road, began going viral on social media a few years ago, locals say things have gotten out of hand. A quick look on Instagram reveals thousands of images of the farm’s winding earthen road lined by stately maple trees lit up in autumnal reds and jack-o-lantern oranges leading toward an elegant 1700s Cape Farmhouse on Cloudland Road. It’s no wonder then, that this unlikely farm has become known as one of “the most photographed places in the state”.
“It’s a beautiful spot. It’s too bad it’s been ruined for everybody,” said Deborah Goodwin, the exhibits coordinator at Pomfret’s Artistree Community Arts Center. “[For] the past couple years it’s been out of control. Tour buses were just dumping… people out there.”
Goodwin says social media influencers would regularly climb over a gate plastered with “No Trespassing” signs, set up changing booths to accommodate their many costume swaps, get their “city cars” stuck on the narrow dirt road, and leave bodily waste by the roadside. “It was bad,” she recalled. “The residents went to the [local government] and said, ‘We can’t have this anymore.'”
During the 2022 leaf-peeping season, law enforcement temporarily turned the road past Sleepy Hollow into a one-way thoroughfare. It wasn’t enough to deter tourists from behaving badly. In 2023, local residents tried a different approach: crowdsourced funding.
In a plea on GoFundMe, a team of organisers wrote: “[We have] experienced an unprecedented surge in Instagram and TikTok-fuelled tourist ‘influencers’… [who] have damaged roads, had accidents, required towing out of ditches, trampled gardens, defecated on private property… and verbally assaulted residents.” To date, the request has garnered 125 donations, and raised more than $22,058.
As a result, town officials voted to close the roads leading to the farm during the peak fall foliage season (23 September to 15 October) to non-residents, spurring the ire of travellers who had driven to the area in hopes of capturing a perfectly curated autumn photo.
“It’s a hotel and amusement park,” scoffed one Instagrammer with 153,000 followers. “Bring all your friends and RVs.”Most Pomfret residents stressed that they’re not anti-tourist; they simply want people to treat their hometown with respect. Even more concerning than issues of private property, several mentioned, are safety concerns for the residents of Cloudland Road, as well as the tourists themselves.
According to Windsor County Sheriff Ryan Palmer, “This is not a road that’s designed to have multiple vehicles on it. [In 2021 and 2022] there were lines of traffic parked up and down the roadway, and you couldn’t get fire apparatus or an ambulance through. It was just overwhelming the infrastructure in the area.”
I see a difference between “ban social media influencers from small towns” and “have social media influencers stop trespassing and pooping while they trespass”.
I think social media influencers are great, if they come in, spend a little money at the Tay-Steee Frïïz, take a picture, then leave? Great! See you next year!
They come in, get their car stuck in the mud, jump Farmer Johnson’s fence, then poop next to his cows?
Yeah. I’m vaguely opposed to that.Report
This has become a huge issue in the New River Gorge in WV since it became a National Park. The old Fayette Station road, which is what the now-world famous bridge replaced, that winds down into the canyon and back up the other side is really only a one lane road for modern vehicles, with a bridge that can only take one vehicle at a time down at the bottom. With the increase in traffic they made it a one-way road (on the four lane modern road and bridge the entry and exit points are only 1.5 miles apart) to try and help with the crush but folks taking RVs down – despite posted signs not to – and pulling over to take pics where there is no room to pull over has made it all but impassible in the summer and especially the fall when the leaves change and rafting season really kicks up and the rafting company buses add to the fun.Report
All we need is one old guy to run out of his picturesque house carrying a double barrel shot gun shouting “get off my property” and firing off a few rounds. Problem would likely be solved.Report
Ah tourism, the great thing of hypocrisy. Most of us simultaneously want to travel while also disliking tourists in our own neighborhoods. Tourist money is wanted and hated too.Report
In this case, the problem is tourists showing up, getting their cars stuck, trespassing, and pooping on the land that they’re trespassing on.
If it were a case of tourists showing up, spending money, and pooping in the designated terlits, the people complaining would sound like a bunch of cranks.Report
It’s kinda weird how cops never seem to just wait and arrest these sort of people. Just stand there, out of sight, wait for someone to climb over the fence with a posted No Trespassing right, and immediately arrest them. Or who drive a RV ten feet onto a road clearly marked to not allowed RVs. Park a cop car twenty fee down the road, out of sight, sirens flip on, people get an immediate ticket.
Seems like it would be a bunch of easy arrests. I know there are arguments the system would be overwhelmed, but they have not even _started_. And surely word would spread.
I mean, isn’t this the premise of ‘tough on crime’ the ‘broken windows’ policing, that if you start enforcing this stuff, everything else gets better? It sure is odd how much the police force is working to try to divert people away, instead of just locking them up and sending a message. Or at minimum towing their cars.
It’s almost as if the cops think there’s certain kinds of people who should be arrested, and another kind of people who should just be warned, and the actual problem here that the ‘people who should just be warned’ are an infinite supply of stupidity rotating in, so the warnings never matter.Report
Tickets would be a great solution. The department could always use extra dough. $100 ticket for trespassing, hand out a couple dozen of those a day, you’re talking real money by the end of the month!Report
I mean, I feel like you’re joking, but this is actually how a lot of urban police departments operate, often in incredibly racist ways.
Anyone want to look back up the stats for Ferguson and what was happening there? In the end, the DOJ actually found the Ferguson city council relied on fines and other charges generated by the police for funding municipal services. Like, they literally couldn’t operate without the level of fines they were giving out, so had absolutely no incentive to reduce crime.
I just find it funny that no one ever seems to consider doing the same for the crimes that white people commit. Which are actually much worse than in Ferguson, which had fines for such insane things as ‘giving the nickname Mike instead of Michael’ and fining people for window tint, along with the always fun ‘loitering’. At least ‘extremely blatant trespassing in direct violation of a no trespassing sign’ is a crime that most people agree should be prosecuted.
If this was purely a monetary thing, the police could just stand there and let the money roll in. But of course it’s not purely a monetary thing, it’s also a system of control and maintaining the status quo and keeping certain underclasses the underclass and not poking the people who are not the underclass.Report
They may be “white” but they’re also “fancy”. If they can afford to be influencers, they can afford to be ticketed a couple C-notes for pooping in a field. And what will the influencers do?
They’re not going to vote against the Sheriff in the next election. They’re not even from here.
Seriously. Tickets would be a great solution.
Pretend these influencers have California plates.Report
The problem with a non-criminal fine is that it’s not any different from an ex post facto permit fee.
On the other hand, if the point is “extract revenue from out-of-towners exploiting our public commons” rather than “stop them coming in here”, then maybe it doesn’t actually matter whether it’s a fine or a fee.Report
They’ve sort of proven that they can’t stop them from showing up.
I’m not even sure what that would look like.Report
Autonomous sentry guns.Report
It’s a mistake to jump from “Fergusons exist” to “any random city must be Ferguson”.
Most cities aren’t Ferguson and don’t want to be.Report
(before suggesting that the town is refusing to arrest people because They’re White you probably should have looked up the town of Pomfrey VT and checked whether it actually has a police department)Report
Oh hey there Commons, how are things? Still Tragic? Yep, well, that’s what we figured. OK, well, good luck to you!Report