Artists and models frequently visited Zena Falls to paint it at all hours of the day and night, on moonlit nights, and on every day of the week.

Eventually it was necessary for the residents of the Zena Mill to demand that artists make arrangements to paint there, or the residents would be faced with a deluge of hundreds of visitors around the house every day, all day long, some of whom demanded food and drink and used the swimming hole without permission, since it seemed to them to be a natural landmark; they, along with passing tourists in motorcars who happened along the road on the way to Woodstock Village via the Zena turnoff, also helped themselves rather plentifully, often carrying away basketfuls of it, to Bud & Julie's hard-grown ears of corn in their cornfield on the corner lane, just across the road from the Zena Mill.

Residents often found surprise picnickers and campers from the City on their property in the morning, or the trash and open campfires they'd left behind.