John Keel Strange Creatures From Space and Time Cover Art

Lore of the Loveland Frog

At left, cover of the 2013 book The Cryptozoologicon. At right, a scene from the book'south interior, depicting yetis in a Himalayan scene; by John Conway. Image: Conway et al. (2013).

The Cryptozoologicon is devoted to cryptids; that is, to mystery animals. Later describing a given cryptid and proposing how it might actually be explained (sadly, most cryptids now seem to be sociocultural phenomena or the products of fakery or human error, not valid biological entities; Naish 2017), nosotros continue to indulge in a bit of speculative zoology: that is, a bit of 'what if' speculation whereby nosotros imagine ourselves inhabiting a parallel universe where cryptids are real (Conway et al. 2013)…

TetZoo regulars will know that a sequel to The Cryptozoologicon – it's working title is The Cryptozoologicon Volume 2, duh – has been planned for some time, and we still aim to complete it 'soon'. Which creatures volition be covered in this shortlyhoped-for-published work? I'm non proverb, merely the article you're reading now concerns i, only one, of the cryptids nosotros've included.

I actually remember that some artists take made the Loveland Frog expect substantially also frog-like, and this is one of the most farthermost examples. Simply, hey, it's a nice and technically very competent piece of art. Overnice to see Pioneer Dork beingness used as a calibration bar. Image: artist unattributed, Cryptid Wiki (source).

Books on 'mystery animals' – cryptids and the like – include a veritable panoply of the weird, unbelievable and ridiculous. Among these, one of my favourites is the Loveland Frog (sometimes called the Loveland Cadger, but that's simply silly): a bipedal, vaguely reptilian animal, similar in size to a child, and supposedly encountered several times in the vicinity of Loveland, Ohio, USA between 1955 and 1972… and there are a few more recent claimed sightings also. The sightings draw greyish, bipedal creatures, said to accept a frog-like head, bulging eyes, a leathery, reptile- or amphibian-type skin, and a standing height of betwixt 3 and 4 anxiety.

The Loveland Frog has been discussed and revisited several times in the mystery fauna literature, the tales recounted here having previously been published in Bord & Bord (1989), Newton (2005) and Shuker (2008) *. I especially like Bord & Bord's (1989) section on the example because it includes the wonderful illustration you meet below, produced by Ron Schaffner, and evidently based on a pencil drawing produced by one of the witnesses.

* Confession: I didn't have Loren Coleman's Mysterious America to hand while writing, nor W. Haden Blackman's The Field Guide to North American Monsters. I understand that these works also include coverage of this creature.

Ron Schaffner'southward evocative illustration of the Loveland Frog, very plainly based on the pencil sketch shown below. Note the suggestion of cranial horns, the rows of parasagittal spines and the oval optics. Paradigm: Ron Schaffner, from Bord & Bord (1989).

Sources that discuss the Loveland Frog most commonly recount the observation of police officer Ray Shockey (though spelt Shocke in some sources) who stopped to observe a animate being seen crossing the road at 1am on March 3rd 1972, when information technology was cold enough for the road to be icy. Shockey'due south fauna was in a crouching position but then stood erect and stared in Shockey's direction before climbing the guardrail separating the road from the basis that slopes down to the Little Miami River (Newton 2005, Haupt 2015). Other officers later came out to check Shockey'due south observations. At that place's some talk of them finding scratch marks on the guardrail but efforts to locate photos verifying the presence of said scratches haven't been successful (Haupt 2015).

A pencil drawing of the Loveland Frog, I assume that made by Ray Shockey (though I've been unable to ostend this; I found it, unattributed, at diverse sites online and haven't seen it in print). The artist evidently had quite some skill.

An account like to Shockey'south was made past another police officer – Marker Matthews – two weeks later, and this once more involved the animate being being encountered on the route at night and seen from a patrol car. Matthews was concerned as the creature stood upward from a crouched stance and fired his gun at it – yee-haw!! 'Murica!! – and seemingly injured the brute. Again, information technology climbed out of sight over the guardrail.

Another depiction of Shockey's frogish see, this time showing the fauna with a sumptuous butt and disturbingly man-like physique. This epitome is widely available online simply I've been unable to notice the artist's name.

But Matthews later on claimed that none of this was accurate, that he'd really seen a large cadger (an escaped pet iguana?), and that he'd augmented the story equally a way of making his colleague (Shockey) seem like less of a nut. I really similar the deep investigation of this business relationship provided past Ryan Haupt for the Skeptoid Podcast (here; Haupt 2015). It provides lots of boosted information and is clearly substantially more reliable than the recountings of events provided in standard cryptozoology- and paranormal-themed websites and publications. Haupt states that there'south what appears to be an email confession from Matthews whereby the account was dismissed as existence 'diddled out of proportion', though its authenticity (it – the 'confession' – appears to accept originated from this 2001 commodity from X-Project Paranormal Magazine ) is doubtful. An implication that a big lizard might accept been seen must also be considered doubtful in view of the icy weather (and cold temperatures) of the time. A big lizard would be hiding away somewhere, not out and most. Apparently, in that location's a sketch that accompanies either Shockey's or Matthews's account (Newton 2005; though his text seems to combine both accounts into a unmarried sighting); I assume it's the pencil one shared higher up. A local farmer is also said to have seen a Loveland Frog shortly afterward only details are hazy.

Images showing all three of Hunnicut's Loveland Frogs together are rare, but at least in that location's this fine piece of piece of work by John Meszaros. Paradigm: Cryptids State-by-State, John Meszaros (source).

The oldest Loveland Frog story pre-dates these 70s 1 and concerns a sighting fabricated on an Ohio roadside during the early morning of May 25th 1955. The story goes that a man of affairs or travelling salesman – sometimes said to be unknown and sometimes specifically identified equally Mr Robert Hunnicut (Newton 2005) – was driving domicile from work when, at 3.30am, he saw three bipedal, greyish reptilian creatures, each nigh iii anxiety alpine. The witness stopped and observed them for a few minutes. In some versions of the story, the creatures were seen 'conversing', in some they were observed under a bridge, and in some one of them held a cylindrical or wand-like device to a higher place its head. This released sparks and was frightening enough that it inspired the witness to abscond.

Post-1972, the Loveland Frog has been rare. There's a 2016 event in which 2 teenagers – out playing Pokémon Go, manifestly (this isn't a sexual euphemism) – supposedly saw and even photographed what appears to exist the creature. Only equally you tin encounter for yourself, this event is most definitely a hoax.

A still from the 2016 footage taken by Sam Jacobs and his girlfriend. The bodily footage is exceedingly nighttime and this epitome has been brightened equally much as possible (past the people at Fox19 News). Some call up that the photograph actually shows a lawn ornament with added lightbulbs. Image: Fox19 News (source).

Explaining the Loveland Frog, or trying to

Given the several peculiarities of the 1955 'three creatures' account, it'due south not surprising that some authors take sought to identify the Loveland Frog as an alien rather than an unknown citizen of Planet Earth. Bold that Loveland Frog accounts stand for bodily observations, an caption mooted by some authors is that they could be confused descriptions of escaped pet iguanas or monitor lizards (Bord & Bord 1989). This is difficult to have given the bipedal postures that witnesses reported, plus the descriptions don't call back big lizards at all. At a stretch we might consider that big lizards in fleeting bipedal or erect-standing poses were witnessed, with substantial embellishment and confusion resulting in essentially modified descriptive accounts, but the common cold temperatures nowadays during some of the sightings as well count against this idea.

Maybe, some might suppose, these fleeting glimpses of large escaped lizards were inadvertently (or deliberately) combined in the minds of the witnesses with their prior knowledge almost the 'big frog monsters' already said to inhabit the Miami River region. Such stories become back to the 1950s at least and it should exist noted that a similar-sounding entity, the 'Lizardman', was reported during the 1970s from Due south Carolina, New Bailiwick of jersey and Kentucky. In other words, there seems to be lore in the region about such creatures… which might hateful that any fleetingly-glimpsed, unidentified weird creature could morph into a monster of this sort in the memories of witnesses.

This is the very best photo of the South Carolina Lizardman, though sadly I couldn't find the version with the top hat and cane. Taken by a mysteriously anonymous source.

Also worth noting is that the 1950s were the time when amphibious fish-monster creatures were being depicted on the big screen. The sensational and highly popular Creature from the Black Lagoon premiered in 1954 and could well have inspired people – consciously or not – to think or pretend that they might really encounter 'frog people' or 'lizard people' of this sort.

Is information technology really coincidental that the Creature from the Black Lagoon appeared the year prior to the first advent of the Loveland Frog? Well, probably not. Prototype: public domain (original here).

One more thing. If we're going to take seriously the thought that Hunnicut and the other alleged witnesses saw real animals and misidentified them, the possibility that they saw big reptiles has to be considered quite unlikely, as noted above. Deer, standing at the roadside and seen in forepart view, sometimes look like humanoid bipeds since their bodies, hindlimbs and snouts merge into invisibility. I came upwards with this thought myself after seeing a scary roadside 'biped' with a round body, wide neck and slender legs morph into a deer equally the car I was in approached and passed it, and I think that a few very odd sightings of similar creatures (like John Irwin's Wharton State Woods monster of Dec 1993; Coleman 1995) could be explained the same manner. Could dislocated observations of this sort explain creatures similar the Loveland Frog? It'south worth considering.

How do nosotros explain (or attempt to explain) 'monster' sightings like the creature reported by John Irwin in 1993? Irwin's cartoon (from Coleman 1995) is shown at left. The 'monster' hither has several deer-like features. Could it be that Irwin saw a foreshortened deer and misinterpreted it equally a biped? The deer paradigm at right (a Wapiti female) is from Geist (1999). Images: Coleman (1995), Geist (1999).

It came from the Squamozoic

The being of metre-tall, bipedal reptile-like creatures has to be regarded as adequately unlikely, peculiarly when those reptile-similar beast are seen carrying mechanical devices that emit sparks. The existent identity backside the beast is obvious, but but if we admit the reality of parallel universes, time travel, and the ability of some creatures to somehow motion between disparate points in infinite and time.

The Loveland Frog was no giant, humanoid frog at all, but actually a giant, vaguely humanoid lizard, and specifically ane of the curt-faced, big-brained iguanians from the parallel World of the Squamozoic.

Curt-faced, tailless, bipedal body forms evolved on a few occasions amidst the iguanians of the Squamozoic, most famously in the terrameleons (this is a Terrible terrameleon). It'due south non a large pace from hither to time-travelling, intelligent, tool-using iguanians in 20th century Ohio. Prototype: electriceel.

On Squamozoic World, squamates (lizards, snakes and amphisbaenians) evolved to boss the large-bodied animal fauna of the planet, and heightened intelligence evolved on several occasions. Nosotros conclude that the Loveland Frog is ane of the intelligent American iguanians, presumably one that comes from a point in time somewhere in the future relative to our own position in the timeline. Whether these intelligent, parallel-universe iguanians have learnt to master time-travel and hence are deliberately travelling to 20th century Ohio every bit part of an exploratory or invasive mission, or whether they are just falling inadvertently through some sort of interdimensional window, we cannot know, but perhaps nosotros will in time.

A large, intelligent iguanian from the Squamozoic surely explains the Loveland Frog (and likely Lizardman and like cryptids too). Here are but a few of the Squamozoic's many denizens. Image: Darren Naish.

Our conclusion that some mystery creatures encountered on World are really travellers from parallel dimensions was unashamedly inspired past promotion of the same idea, presented as a serious possibility in some of the mystery animate being literature (Keel 1975, Bord & Bord 1980) and clearly non contradicted by our understanding of the way reality works.

The Bords were surely right, and John Keel was too.

On that note, The Cryptozoologicon Volume two will appear ane day, nosotros promise.

For previous TetZoo manufactures on the Cryptozoologicon project and on cryptozoology and mystery creatures in general, run into…

• Tales from theCryptozoologicon: the Yeti, August 2013

• Tales from the Cryptozoologicon: Megalodon!, August 2013

• The Cryptozoologicon (Volume I): here, at last, Dec 2013

• If Bigfoot Were Real, June 2016

• Bigfoot's Genitals: What Do We Know?, Baronial 2018

• A Review of Robert L. France's Disentangled: Ethnozoology and Ecology Explanation of the Gloucester Sea Serpent, November 2019

The publication of The Cryptozoologicon Volume 2 and other various in-prep TetZoo projects is in part contingent on crowd-funded back up, as is the continued advent of new articles at this blog. Huge cheers to those who support TetZoo at patreon. If you're interested in pledging support and seeing in-prep work, delight click here.

Refs - -

Bord, J. & Bord, C. 1980. Alien Animals. Granada, London.

Bord, J. & Bord, C. 1989. Modern Mysteries of the World. Social club Publishing, London.

Coleman, L. 1995. Jersey Devil walks once more. Fortean Times 83, 49.

Conway, J., Kosemen, C. One thousand. & Naish, D. 2013. Cryptozoologicon Volume I . Irregular Books.

Geist, V. 1999. Deer of the World. Swan Hill Press. Shrewsbury.

Haupt, R. 2015. The Loveland Frog. Skeptoid Podcast. Skeptoid Media, 30 Jun 2015. Web. 11 January 2020.

Keel, J. 1975. Foreign Creatures from Time & Space. Nevill Spearman, London.

Naish, D. 2017. Hunting Monsters. Arcturus, London.

Newton, M. 2005. Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology. McFarland & Company, Jefferson (Due north. Carolina) and London.

Shuker, 1000. P. N. 2008. Dr Shuker's Casebook: In Pursuit of Marvels and Mysteries. CFZ Press, Woolsery (Devon, United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland).

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Source: https://tetzoo.com/blog/2020/1/12/lore-of-the-loveland-frog

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