ROCK SPRINGS – Mayor Max Mickelson issued a statement denouncing racist messaging that has been seen in the city and on social media Thursday afternoon, saying the city is a community inhabited by “a kind and generous people.”

Sweetwater County has seen sign boards and stickers promoting white supremacist groups placed near high-traffic areas for several months, and SweetwaterNOW has previously reported on them. Mickelson’s comments come after residents on social media reported seeing stickers calling to “keep Wyoming White” and other similar messages in Green River and Rock Springs.

“Whether one calls it division, strife, or tribalism, in our city of twenty odd thousand people, there are those who benefit from spreading hate. Our history as people of different ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds making their home together as neighbors created Rock Springs,” Mickelson said. “Everyone from our founding families to ones moving here today enrich us through this heritage. We are a community that bands together when times are difficult and celebrates together when they are good.”

Mickelson said he, the Rock Springs City Council, and the city itself “repudiate and condemn the organizations and members who are posting supremacist racist filth in our community.” Mickelson said people supporting racist views should know Rock Springs residents  support one another regardless of their “politics, class, ethnicity, race, religion, culture, or orientation.”

Mickelson said he realizes everyone won’t get along, but said living in the harsh climate Sweetwater County has and working the dangerous jobs has given the city’s residents a history of relying on each other as neighbors.

“We are fundamentally a kind and generous people. Hate can only grow where the soil receives it and we, in Rock Springs, reject it without reservation,” he said.