Finding Frogman

In this thrilling Halloween-themed episode of the Wild Developments Podcast, we take you on a journey to uncover the legend of the Loveland Frogman. A cryptid that’s long been part of Ohio’s local lore, the Loveland Frogman is said to be a 4-foot tall humanoid amphibian with webbed hands and glowing eyes. Through my documentary Finding Frogman, created with JL Aerial Views, we explored all three sighting locations, showcasing Loveland's beautiful scenery and its connection to this cryptid.

The legend dates back to 1955, with two other notable sightings in 1972 and 2016. While the Frogman remains elusive, its impact on the community is undeniable. From local businesses like Mile 42 Coffee to events such as the Loveland Frogman Race, the creature has become a symbol of adventure, mystery, and folklore in Loveland.

While searching for the Frogman, I was struck by the connection between local nature and the stories that bind the community. My journey with JL Aerial Views captured stunning aerial shots of the Little Miami River and the surrounding flora and fauna, but the legend of the Frogman continued to elude us—adding to its mystique.

Through cryptid stories like this, we see how shared curiosity and lore can unite a community. And while the Frogman remains a mystery, our search encouraged us to explore deeper into our natural surroundings and reminded us that not all mysteries need solving—some are just meant to spark our sense of adventure.

Watch Finding Frogman Here!
JL Aerial Views

Wild Wisdom:

1. Embrace Local Legends: Seek out local folklore in your area and use it as an excuse to explore. Every town has its mystery—what's yours?
2. Document the Wild: Whether you’re a cryptid hunter or a nature lover, document your adventures with photos, videos, or journals. You never know what you'll capture!
3. Connect with Community Through Nature: Use outdoor activities to connect with others. A shared love of mystery or adventure can build strong bonds in your community.

Let’s hear your story! Click here to submit your tale.

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Transcript

The frogman for us is all about adventure and exploration a little bit of mystery so it it's a it's a great story to tell about loveland and again something that's unique to our our community welcome to wild development studio join us as we venture into the breathtaking realm of wildlife arts and untamed adventures with captivating stories from the field and ideas to dive into the visual arts will ignite your passion for conservation. 
Get ready to develop something wild. 
Welcome to Wild Developments, where you can break free from the daily grind and rediscover your wild side with art and adventure. 
I'm your guide, Lauren, and today's episode is going to take us on a journey inspired by the spooky season. 
Happy Halloween, everyone. 
A year ago today, I wrapped up a documentary with my husband through our drone company, 
JL Aerial Views. 
It. 
It combined my love for storytelling, cryptid legends, and drone videography. 
The result? Finding Frogman, a deep dive into the mysterious and captivating tale of the Loveland Frogman, 
a local legend that has fascinated me and the community alike. 
If you'd like to check out the video for this documentary, I have linked it in the show notes to watch on YouTube. 
I particularly like the drone work that my husband did where we were able to capture all three of the sighting locations in one frame, 
and the aerial views of Loveland and the castle are stunning. 
You'll see why. 
Loveland really is the sweetheart of Ohio. 
In this special episode we'll explore not just the legend itself but how the cryptid has brought our community together and surprisingly we're gonna learn a lot about our actual native flora and fauna. 
From the drone footage capturing eerie sightings to the interviews that feel like putting the pieces of a puzzle together, 
I'll share how this project has unfolded and ignited my passion for storytelling. 
Get. 
Get ready for this thrilling adventure and why cryptids, like the frogman, can unite people through shared curiosity and lore. 
Let's dive in. 
It is greatly debated how many cryptid species there are roaming the world today. 
Many speculate these creatures even exist due to lack of scientific evidence. 
One thing is for certain, there is a mysterious creature sighting in nearly every town of the United States. 
In the heart of it all state, Ohio, there's a sweetheart city keeping a legend alive of a great amphibian, 
Loveland, home to the elusive frogman. 
Loveland is a small city located in the southwestern part of Ohio. 
About 15miles northeast of Cincinnati, this once bustling railroad town is now a popular destination along the Little Miami Scenic Trail and borders the Little Miami River. 
River. There are three famous sightings of the Loveland Frogman, a creature that has been described as a four -foot -tall humanoid frog with green skin, 
webbed hands and feet, and glowing red eyes. 
The first encounter with the Loveland Frogman occurred in 1955near the Branch Hill. 
Bridge. Businessman Ray Shockey claimed to have seen three of the creatures near the bridge over the Little Miami River. 
Shockey was so shocked by the encounter that he paused and watched the creatures for minutes and then reported it all to the police. 
The second encounter occurred in. 
1972along River Road. 
Two Loveland police officers, Charlie Reynolds and Marvin Matthews, were responding to a call when they saw a large frog -like creature standing in the road. 
Only Matthews fired his gun at the creature, but it escaped. 
The third encounter occurred in 2016near Lake Isabella Park. 
A man playing Pokemon Go claimed to have spotted the frogman standing in the river. 
The man described the creature as huge and terrifying. 
JL Aerial Views is on a mission to find the Loveland frogman. 
They will be visiting all the locations of the reported sightings and interviewing local business owners to discuss how they are keeping the legend of the Frogman alive today and what it means to them. 
To begin our journey, we start where most people start their day, getting a cup of coffee, 
of course. 
Lo and behold, Mile 42Coffee is a cafe in downtown Loveland that just so happens to have the Frogman as their logo. 
I'm Jackie Butler. 
I'm one of the owners of Mile 42Coffee. 
I own it with my husband and my oldest daughter, Katie. 
We opened our doors actually three years ago on February 15th, so six weeks before COVID hit. 
We just, with a wing and a prayer, opened our doors, not knowing that the pandemic was going to hit or anything. 
And at the last minute, we put a little walk -up window in, 
and that became our lifeline. 
And through the eight months that we were closed inside, and then we reopened. 
So it's our three -year anniversary. 
Coffee Emporium is our roaster, and we serve mochas, lattes, specialty coffees. 
We also have smoothies. 
My daughter and I would walk on the bike path every Sunday we would meet because she lives down in Madisonville, 
and we kept thinking of a name for the coffee shop. 
We had a list like this long. 
One of them was actually like Frog Man Coffee or Froggies, but the intersection right out here is the mile 42mile marker on the bike trail which is starts in xenia is the trailhead and it comes down goes down towards cincinnati and this is the mile 42marker and we just kept coming back to that name so we ended up with mile 42coffee which has really been kind of fun because people ask all the time well the love them frog man is a story that's unique to loveland when we were opening the coffee shop we decided we wanted to incorporate that somehow into the coffee shop put. 
We put it on our t -shirts, we have mugs, we have beanies. 
We kind of incorporated the love of the urban legend of the Loveland Frogman into our whole coffee shop. 
We have a book here that tells the story because people ask us so often. 
There's a couple of different stories. 
Through the years, he's been spotted. 
We actually have that on the quiz for our barista because so many people ask when they come in, 
you know, what's this, what's the frog? 
Why are you have frogs everywhere? 
I even had a woman come in here just last summer and she was like my age and she's like, 
I know you think I'm crazy, but I saw the Loveland Frogman. 
I said, no, you're crazy. 
I think that's great. 
And she proceeded to tell me the story and she is convinced she saw him, 
you know, like a few months prior to when she came in. 
So yeah. 
And I said, no, come and write it. 
We have a book. 
And I said, come write it in our book. 
Tell us the story. 
Oh, there's also the Loveland Frogman race, which is huge in the summer. 
And it starts, I think, at the canoe livery. 
So there's just people everywhere and t -shirts with the frogman on it. 
And that started several years ago and has continued and really grown. 
It's a very fun event. 
Fully caffeinated from the frogman special, we were inspired to take a short walk to explore the nearby kayak livery involved with the frogman race Jackie mentioned. 
Loveland Paddle Sports. 
My name is Mark Bersani, and my wife and I own Loveland Paddle Sports here in Loveland, 
Ohio and we rent kayaks as well as sell kayaks. 
The great thing about this is a very family -friendly river so it's a gentle class one float. 
There's not any real technical features. 
You always have to, in any river, you have to be aware and you know and be cognizant of the natural terrain. 
Things can change on a daily basis. 
Complete novice can come on and have a successful trip. 
We have one trip it's called the Castle Adventure. 
We put in about five miles up river. 
River. One of the great attractions that we have here is the Loveland Castle, 
which is a little bit over halfway into the trip. 
It's a great story about a man who had a vision to build a castle like one he saw in Europe and spent about 50years working on that, 
carrying rocks up from the river, pails of water and sand, and constructed that castle. 
So it's visible on the trip. 
It's a real unique feature. 
People love to stop there on their own schedule. 
So we've had customers get back in an hour and a half and then other people might take five or six hours if they brought a picnic lunch and want to stop along the way and of course when everyone gets back to downtown lowell and there's so much to do here we've got you know we've got the ice cream shops we've got great restaurants and a great business community down here so it becomes a whole day whole day outing for folks you're going to see a lot of nature and wildlife and one of the neat things for my wife and i is that over the last five or six years we've increasingly been been seeing bald eagle here which in the early years we didn't see you always saw a lot of you know ducks and herons and and other wildlife that's native to this river but the bald eagle probably about five or six years ago we started seeing their presence and now it's pretty regular occurrence that we'll see an eagle fly through this area there's a nesting pair that's not too far away so that's always beautiful and we see osprey I've seen it's pretty rare but I've seen a beaver seen otters so those type of things are always for us they're kind of like magical to see that in the wild. 
Yeah the frogman is a great I think part of Loveland when we first bought the business and my wife was researching Loveland we kind of found out hey there's this story this this myth of the Loveland frogman so we've never actually seen him but we are believers the frogman for us is all about adventure and exploration a little bit of mystery so it's a it's a great story to tell about Loveland and again and something that's unique to our our community our bigfoot a lot of businesses in the area about you know really taking to the frogman and it's just part of the loveland mystique claim to but we don't have any video or photographic evidence so uh yep there have been some claims i keep i keep looking i keep looking every time i'm out there every fall we do an event with the chamber called the loveland frogman which is a unique triathlon so it starts with a kayaking trip. 
It's either solo or tandem, and then transitions to bike, and then a run on the trail. 
That on -water segment is a little bit unique, and that's the piece that my team handles. 
So we love working with the Chamber on that. 
They do a great job, and again, it's kind of a signature event for Loveland every fall. 
You should talk to Meredith over at the Chamber. 
Off of Mark's recommendation, we contacted Meredith with the Little Miami River Chamber. 
Alliance to discuss the Frogman Race. 
She agreed to meet us along the route. 
Hi, I'm Meredith Taylor, and I am the race director for the Loveland Frogman Race, 
which is put on every September here on the Little Miami River and hosted by the Little Miami River Chamber Alliance. 
The Little Miami River Chamber Alliance is actually a chamber of commerce, and some people get us confused. 
Are we the city? 
Do we work for the city? 
We are actually a separate organization. 
We're a nonprofit chamber of commerce, and we help support three different locations, 
the city of Loveland, Sims Township, and Miami Township. 
We help support businesses, help them thrive, bring economic development to the area, 
and really help businesses be successful. 
We get the question a lot about why do you do a triathlon, 
because it's pretty, I won't say easy to do a 5K, but it's a lot less work to do a 5K. 
There's a lot of work in any race that anybody puts on, to be clear. 
We live in a really unique and fun area where we have the gorgeous river. 
We have a bike trail so we're not having to come up with these random routes and it really just kind of lends itself to this natural environment where we can do a triathlon and then we have gorgeous parks here in the Miami Township in. 
Loveland area that we're able to utilize we could do a swim but it would be probably slightly dangerous as well as freezing cold in the river so one of the things as a Chamber of Commerce is we want to help support the businesses so. 
So not only are we supporting and showing off our beautiful landscape here in Loveland while we do the triathlon, 
we're able to literally support businesses. 
It's definitely more than just a local race right now. 
It has grown to out of state, all over Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana. 
It really is a regional race because it's so unique, right? 
Like it's not a traditional triathlon. 
You can train for it, but it's meant to be fun. 
It's meant to show off the community, but it is a very unique setting. 
So when the race was originally designed about nine years ago they were trying to come up with a creative name for it and frogman just kind of lent itself naturally to the name of the triathlon because of the legend of the frogman so just to keep that kind of folklore and that legend alive we wanted to engage that name with the actual race and so there is a kind of a funny part of the race. 
I've never heard anybody say that they've seen the Frogman, but we do have a frog buoy at the end where people circle around in order to come back. 
So that's kind of unique that we're able to tie it in with this frog buoy as well. 
It's on our logo and really just kind of embrace that history and that uniqueness of Loveland. 
So while the race goes through all three or passes through all three sightings of the Frogman, 
I think that's just a happy coincidence it wasn't necessarily planned that way i think it's just kind of how the route kind of naturally went which is kind of fun so you might actually see the frogman on the race you can probably see almost any natural animal as that you would see on any kind of given park day so you're going to see typical squirrels you may see a deer you might see a snake in the river that would get me to paddle faster for sure that would get me to maybe we should throw them into the river for the for the race there's a couple parts on the river which are really cool that you can see turtles sunbathing so you can see those on the log so you never know what you're gonna see you might see some frogs i believe in the spirit of the frog man i believe in in a fun history and a fun folklore and another great organization that would have more information about the different animals the different types of plants and things that are native to this area to chat with would be. 
Love Our Land. 
Meredith had a great idea. 
We can learn more about Loveland's native animals and what to expect in our search for the frogman from Doug at. 
Love Our Land. 
In true naturalist fashion, he emerged from the woods to talk to us. 
Hi, I'm Doug Gilbert. 
I'm a co -founder of Love Our Land. 
We are a Loveland -based conservation organization. 
We received our nonprofit status about a year ago. 
We're community focused, meaning the things that we attempt to do are meant to engage community members in effective conservation strategies. 
So we give them the knowledge and skills that are necessary to handle the environmental challenges each community faces. 
Most recently, I gave a class on mushroom identification, winter tree identification. 
We're about to do a bumblebee conservation summit. 
We have done a How to Love Your Land class, which helps landowners know what kinds of things they need to do to help promote biodiversity on their own properties. 
I am an ecologist. 
I work for an environmental consulting firm. 
I focus on rare, threatened, and endangered species conservation. 
Conservation. 
I, in particular, I focus on birds and bees and flowers and trees. 
The rarest thing I've ever found was a mushroom in the genus Amanita, 
which are those toadstools that people are most familiar with. 
I found that here in Loveland and it was only ever documented one other time in Indiana. 
So that happens to be the rarest species I've ever encountered here in. 
Loveland. My favorite species here in Loveland is the American bumblebee. 
It's a species of conservation concern that has declined across its range and is actually now being proposed for the endangered species list and we luckily still have some of those here in Loveland. 
So Love Our Land has a frogman search team. 
We established this in 2022.
We have a line of of products devoted to the frogman search team. 
T -shirts, stickers, tumblers, and excited to be in Loveland where such a type of, 
you know, story and lore exists. 
And we just think it's really fun and exciting to talk to people about frogman. 
The species of frogs in Loveland are, the most common is probably the American bullfrog, 
followed by the green frog, the northern leopard frog, the spring peeper that happens to be a very vociferous one that we hear during spring it peeps away. 
We have wood frogs, gray tree frogs are very common. 
Those are probably the most common species we have here. 
So really all of those frogs need to be somewhere where there's moisture. 
They need wetlands or ponds, streams, rivers. 
The species that does probably the best without water is the gray tree frog. 
You can oftentimes find those just up on the sides of houses, so that one's a very common species we have here. 
But I will say that even the gray tree frog needs water at the tadpole stage, 
so that's very important. 
A lot of what frogs eat is largely invertebrates, so insects, crustaceans like crayfish. 
Probably the most interesting diet happens to be the American bullfrog's diet. 
They can eat fish, fish, small mammals, and they'll even consume ducklings. 
So if you're ever watching some ducks swim around and you had counted five ducklings and then you counted four, 
it's very possible that a bullfrog got that. 
Are any of these frogs close to four feet? No. 
No. 
They are not close to four feet tall. 
But if I had to say, you know, who around here might get to that size, 
it'd definitely be the American bullfrog. 
Some weird mutation, who knows? 
Maybe. 
So could the Loveland area sustain the lifestyle of a four foot frog band? 
Really the amount of water we have around here the fact that we have some hill you know deep densely forested hills you know there are places for things of that nature to hide and so I think that it's very possible that something like that could sustain itself here in the Loveland area. 
Things that could be confused with a four -foot frogman. 
We're talking about maybe large dogs with mange or even with some of the earlier sightings it was thought that a pet iguana a large pet iguana that had been released was actually you know the culprit behind that sighting. 
It's amazing how the the mind and eye will play a trick on you when you're out looking at some of these things. 
To prepare for looking for frogman, you're probably going to want to go out in the evening. 
So you're going to need something like a headlamp or a flashlight. 
We're going to leave any sort of nets or anything, any sort of devices that could catch the frogman at home because we don't want to anger the frog man we will you want to you know have a map of the area do your research on where it is you're going anytime you're going out you want to be familiar with that landscape that you're going into so you might even want to go out the day before just to scout things out all amphibious creatures need some form of water and so if you can find a good water source whether whether it's the Little Miami River or a nice pond. 
That might be where you wanna go to check it out. 
Signs of a large four -foot frogman, we wanna see tracks in the mud or in the sediment. 
We want to look for potentially carcasses of the things that a four -foot frogman might eat. 
So you might see some fish bones or, you know, things like that. 
Concerns you might have when looking for a four -foot frogman might be that if you get too close to this thing, 
we don't really know what's going to happen. 
So you want to make sure you're keeping your distance from the frogman or whatever other type of wildlife you might engage with. 
It. Some other things you might want to be concerned about are potentially some nasty smells. 
Think about a creature that is going to be spending its life in, 
you know, an aquatic situation, likely consuming fish and other, you know, maybe some dead animals. 
You're probably gonna be talking about a sticky creature, so. 
So maybe bring some nose plugs for that. 
If you see a four -foot frogman, you're going to want to get a picture, 
first of all, first and foremost. 
Then you're going to want to tell somebody who is actually going to think you're not making it up. 
Because I've been in a situation where you tell somebody something, and then they just make you second -guess yourself, 
and it's not a good time. 
But in all reality, get a picture, document it somehow. 
Somehow use iNaturalist. 
See what iNaturalist says. 
You know, maybe this frogman is actually a very large iguana or something, 
and iNaturalist can help sort of sift that out for you. 
You want to definitely have a camera, because everybody in Loveland and beyond will want to know about your experience with the frogman. 
We certainly have a fleet of cameras to attempt to capture an image of the frogman from the land with game cameras, 
on foot with the thermal, and in the air with the drone and using an underwater camera. 
Our on -foot search started at Lake Isabella where the most recent sighting occurred. 
We deployed a game camera in the woods facing the river. 
In the meantime we walked around the grounds only finding fish, which could be a possible food source but no four -foot frog in sight. 
Then using the aid of frog sounds to try to lure him in. 
With no luck. 
Next, our search took us to Cones Road, where we launched the thermal drone, 
hoping to maybe find a frog -shaped cold spot lurking in the water's edge. 
A thorough analysis of the footage produced no results of a frog, but we did find a deer in a field and a cat hidden in the woods. 
Our water cam only picked up a very curious soft -shelled turtle and some fish. 
After a few days, we gathered the game cameras to discover what they were able to capture with motion detection the photogenic raccoon made an appearance and this white -tailed deer our team detected a strange anomaly hidden behind these shrubs we slowed it down and enhanced the footage to try and get a better look could this be a glimpse of the frogman i was like come get coffee I love you. 
Everyone wants to meet you. 
I don't think I'd be afraid, I don't think he's a scary character, 
but I think I would just be kind of in awe that I was able to actually see this creature that people have talked about for so long. 
I hope there's no children nearby, there would be words, there would be, 
it would not be my best day if I saw the actual frogman. 
And I hope I have a camera. 
If you see a four -foot frog man, call me immediately. 
I want to see this. 
The Frogman for us is all about adventure and exploration, a little bit of mystery. 
It's a great story to tell about Loveland and, again, something that's unique to our community. 
Thanks for joining Wild Development Studio. 
We hope this exploration into the world of wildlife arts and adventure has sparked a desire to get outside and connect with something wild. 
If you have an adventure that's awe -inspiring, don't hesitate to share. 
Click the link in the description to submit your story to have it featured on our show or be a guest until next time keep connecting to the wild and see what develops the views opinions and statements expressed by individuals during wild development studio productions do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of wild development studio or its affiliates participation in any activities expeditions or adventures discussed or promoted during our content may involve inherent risks it is strongly advised that individuals conduct thorough research research. 
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