Mr. Johnson, a senior adviser to Mr. Perry early in his term as governor, said he never had seen a rock with any racial slur on it, and that he had never heard Mr. Perry or any other member of the hunting parties refer to the land parcel that way or use racial epithets in conversation.

“I’ve hunted out there a couple of times, but I never saw the rock, and I never heard of the rock,” Mr. Johnson said. “It never entered our conversations.“

Fred McClure, a longtime friend of Mr. Perry who is black and who was urged to call a reporter by a campaign official, said he once took an overnight trip to the camp in the late 1970s or early 1980s. He said he never saw any reference to any racial epithet on the property, though because he flew to the site with Mr. Perry he never saw the entrance, where the rock was said to be located.

Any suggestion that Mr. Perry is racist, he added, “is not only untrue but also extremely unfair.”…

The Post, however, quoted Ronnie Brooks, a retired game warden, as saying the name was still on the rock when Mr. Perry taking bringing lawmakers to the camp, though he said the rock was later turned over.