The Loveland Frog

Two Loveland, Ohio, police officers reported a frog-like animal along the roads beside the Little Miami River in March 1972. One of them, Mark Mathews, said in 2016 that it was an iguana that had probably escaped or been released by its owner.

What witnesses reported

At 1:00 a.m. on March 3, 1972, Loveland police officer Ray Shockey was on Riverside Drive, close to the Totes boot factory and the Little Miami River, when an animal scurried across the road ahead of his vehicle, fully lit by his headlights. The creature had leathery skin and moved in a crouching, frog-like manner. In Shockey’s account, it stood up as he approached, climbed over the guardrail, and went down an embankment toward the river.

Shockey reported what he had seen to fellow officer Mark Mathews at the station. Mathews later said he could tell from Shockey’s demeanor that his partner had genuinely seen something, even though he did not believe it was a creature matching the description. The two men returned to the scene and found scrape marks leading down the hill toward the river.

Two weeks later, on March 17, 1972, Mathews encountered a similar animal while driving in the same area near Kemper Road. At the time, Mathews said it was standing more upright than what Shockey had described, and that it kept a wary eye on him while it left the road and started climbing the guardrail. Mathews drew his sidearm and shot at it.

Skeptical and alternative explanations

In August 2016, after a new reported sighting revived the legend in local news, Mathews called a WCPO reporter to set the record straight. He gave an account that differed from his original telling. The animal had not been walking upright; it moved on all four legs and crawled under the guardrail instead of over it.

It was a large iguana about three to three-and-a-half feet long, missing its tail, the reason he had not recognized it at first. He recovered the body and placed it in his trunk to show Shockey. Shockey confirmed it was the same animal from two weeks earlier.

“The thing was half dead anyway when I shot it,” Mathews said. He speculated that the iguana had been someone’s pet that escaped or was released when it grew too large, and that the cold-blooded reptile may have survived by living near warm water pipes from the boot factory’s cooling ovens during cold Ohio weather in March.

“It’s a big hoax,” he said. “There’s a logical explanation for everything.”

Mathews had told the full account, including the iguana identification, to an author of a book about urban legends. That author omitted the confirmation that the creature was an iguana, ending the story after the shot was fired instead.

Ron Schaffner, who interviewed both officers in 1976 as a fortean investigator, questioned why Mathews waited 44 years to debunk the legend. Schaffner noted that both officers had supported the frogman account in his own 1976 interview and said they showed him a composite drawing of the creature.

What remains today

The oldest commonly repeated version of the Loveland Frog story traces back to around May 1955, when an unnamed traveler reported seeing three small humanoid figures near a bridge in the Loveland area. That account comes primarily from UFO-era newsletters and later researchers rather than contemporary news reports or police records, making it harder to verify.

In August 2016, a couple playing Pokémon Go near Lake Isabella claimed to see a large frog-like figure standing on its hind legs. Sam Jacobs photographed and filmed what he believed was the creature, but the images were too dark to show more than glowing eyes and an indistinct shape. The evidence was not clear enough to prove anything, one regional history site wrote, but it was dramatic enough to revive the legend.

Loveland has since embraced its cryptid. The frog now serves as the city’s official mascot, debuting in a “frog prince” costume at Hearts Afire Weekend and appearing at other city events. The city describes the Frogman as part of Ohio folklore tied to the Little Miami River, and it has hosted Return of the Frogman, an outdoor festival with a Frogger arcade competition and frog-themed children’s activities.