Hayward claimed in his OIG interview that, in addition to the racist signs, he saw "a flimsy made [sic] effigy of a black person hanging from a tree in the road." In his affidavit he claimed it was hanging at the check-in point for the entire Roundup.
We found no corroborating witnesses for this allegation. The registration coordinator and others camped in the registration area with him whom we interviewed said they did not see any effigy. The witness who believed he saw a sign just inside the campground to the right -- again, this was a site outside the view of the registration desk -- also recalled seeing an empty noose hanging near the sign. Not one of the approximately 150 other attendees interviewed supported that recollection.
We reject Hayward's claim of an effigy at the Roundup. We could not find anyone else who saw it despite his claim that it was hanging at the registration desk for the entire Roundup. Witnesses camped at the registration area for the entire Roundup credibly denied seeing an effigy. While someone had a hazy recollection of seeing a noose for a short period of time in a different part of the campground just prior to or just after the Roundup opened, he stated that there was nothing in the noose.