Encounter Atlas
The Loveland frog legend has two parts. According to later retellings, in 1955 (some versions say May) a businessman driving at night near the Branch Hill area of Loveland saw three figures standing upright by the road, 3 to 4 feet tall, with leathery skin and frog-like faces; some versions add that one held up a wand that threw sparks. No contemporary report of this sighting is known, and details differ between versions.
The better-documented episode came at about 1 a.m. on March 3, 1972. Loveland police officer Ray Shockey said an animal crossed Riverside Drive in his headlights near the Little Miami River. He described it as 3 to 4 feet long, leathery and weighing perhaps 50 to 75 pounds; it crouched like a frog, then stood up to climb over the guardrail and went down toward the river.
About two weeks later a second officer, Mark Matthews, said he saw a similar animal by the road nearby, shot it and found it was a large iguana, about 3 feet long and missing its tail, probably a released pet. He said Shockey confirmed it was the animal he had seen. Matthews has since called the frogman story a hoax and complained that authors left out the iguana. Skeptoid noted it could not find coverage of the 1972 sightings in local papers of the time.
Despite this, the Loveland frog has become a beloved local legend. It inspired the 2014 musical Hot Damn! It's the Loveland Frog!, the 2023 horror film Frogman and the 2023 documentary Finding Frogman, and in 2023 a frog prince costume became the city's mascot. A 2016 report of a frog-like figure by the river, from people playing Pokémon Go, briefly revived the story.