One of my favorite B Science Fiction movies is The Creature from the Black Lagoon from 1954. That’s how I picture the Frogmen of Loveland. I discovered during my research that the first sighting of these cryptids occurred in 1955, the year after the movie was released. Nevertheless, the story bears telling.

A businessman traveling through the little town of Loveland, Ohio, at 3:30 a.m. on a morning in May of 1955, witnessed three humanoid/reptilian creatures by the road. He pulled over and watched for a few minutes, until one of the odd beasts started waving something around in the air that looked like a Fourth-of-July sparkler. The businessman decided that was the time to continue his road trip.

He did provide a description: Approximately three and a half feet tall with “leathery skin,” and “webbed hands and feet.” Their heads were distinctively “frog-like,” with deep grooves instead of hair. The eyes were bulging, and the mouth was wide.

Five months later, in August, a woman swimming in the Ohio River near Evansville, Indiana, was attacked by something below the water. It grabbed her, and tried to pull her under. She got away, but was covered with long scratches and bruises. There was also an extraordinary greenish hand print on her leg.


Seventeen years later, very early on the morning of March 3, 1972, a policeman traveling down an icy road saw a creature dash in front of the vehicle almost causing a collision. After he stopped his vehicle, he saw this amazing frogman in his headlights, squatting down on two legs looking at him. After a quick moment, the frogman jumped over the guardrail and down to the Ohio River.

The policeman provided a similar description as the businessman: Three to four feet tall, weighing between fifty and seventy-five pounds, with skin that looked leathery, and “features resembling those of a frog or lizard.” When another officer checked out the scene later, he did find odd “scratch marks” on the guardrail.

Two weeks later, another officer, driving toward Loveland, spotted a frogman on the road. At first, thinking the creature was dead, he got out of his vehicle to remove the road kill from the highway. Unexpectedly, the frogman jumped up, scaring the officer into drawing his revolver and taking a shot. The hybrid, not taking his eyes off the public servant, escaped via the guardrail and river once again. The description in this account matched the others with the addition of a tail.

Investigators uncovered many more sightings in the area from farmers and other local residents. From eyewitness accounts, the frogmen are excellent swimmers, and agile leapers.

In 1985, two boys in the area claimed to have seen a dog-sized frog by the river.

Other sightings of similar creatures include an incident in Pretare d'Arquata, Italy in 1993. To seem some fascinating pictures, and read of a young man’s captivating and informative account first hand, please see http://www.ufocasebook.com/caponi.html. This witness had several encounters with the beings. He touched one of the monsters with his foot, and the foot turned black for several days. A large number of headless and limbless hens were found in the area during this time, although curiously, there were no reports of any blood around the poultry.

There was another sighting in Varginha, Brazil in 1996, witnessed by over eighty people, and two of these creatures were captured. One of the policeman who captured a creature with his bare hands, died less than a month after the incident due to a bacterial infection. There is speculation that it might have been unintentionally transferred from the being. Please see http://www.hyper.net/ufo/occupants.html for an interesting video. An unusually high number of animals in the zoo in the area died mysteriously during this time.

In an interview in 2003, a Brazilian doctor claimed to have examined one of the creatures and noted reptilian skin, “three bony prominences” on the top of the head, a very long and forked tongue, as well as external veins. He also asserts that the feet ended in a type of claw.

The Miami, a Native American Indian Tribe, is also said to include tales of an amphibious creature in the Loveland area centuries ago.

Many investigators believe that this creature is similar to the Kappos of Japan, and the Kalanoro of Madagascar. Some even compare it to the Chupacabra of Latin America.

Many times while floating on my back, gazing up at the sky from the surface of a lake, quarry, river, or other body of water, my infernal imagination starts to spin some heinous scenario out in my head: Something smelly, slick, and vicious rising up from beneath me, snatching me with its sharp claws, and pulling me down to the icy depths below. I’m sure the scene will now be even more clearly defined in my head. Yikes!

References/Sources/Additional Information and Reading:
Blackman, W. Haden. The Field Guide to North American Monsters. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1998. Pages 164-165
Clark, Jerome. Unexplained!. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1999. Page 498
Coleman, Loren. Mysterious America: The Revised Edition. New York: Paraview Press, 2001. Page 68
Newton, Michael. Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology: A Global Guide to Hidden Animals and Their Pursuers. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2005. Page 275