by David Miller
Loveland, Ohio – The March 2nd Loveland Frogman Festival at the Oasis Conference Center may have been art imitating life or life imitating art. As much as anything, it is a cultural and art show seen from the otherworldly perspective of people’s lives, through the attire of visitors and vendors, and the art they create. Something of a masquerade ball, Halloween party, craft show and family reunion. It was a showcase of Loveland, Ohio to the Mid-West the South, and the East Coast.
When I asked Founder and Director of the Festival, Jeff Craig to identify the person in the frog costume next to him in this photo he asked me to take, he said, “That was a costume? Say it ain’t so?” He laughed before continuing, “Now that I think about it, I never saw my oldest daughter and the Frog at the same time throughout the festival.”
Since the mid 1990’s Jeff has worked in the world of cartography and Geographic Information Systems, most recently for the last ten years with Duke Energy. He graduated from Miami University with a degree in Education and completed grad school at the University of Cincinnati studying Geography. As his schedule allowed, he taught Intro Geography courses at Northern Kentucky University, Cincinnati State, and Miami University. He lives in Cincinnati near Mt. Airy Forest with his wife Sarah. They have a blended family including a son and daughter in college and a daughter in 4th grade. He said, “Our house is always home to many pets. Right now that includes three dogs and three cats.” Music has always been part of Jeff’s life, from marching band to jazz band in school and he now plays the snare drum with the Cincinnati Caledonian Pipes & Drums.
I hope you will get a sense of the spirit of the Frogman Festival in these very short videos below. I quickly learned what smudge fans are, first being attracted to their beauty and the craftsmanship thinking they were only ornamental pieces of amazing art. They are indeed, but as Sherry explains, they have a very useful and practical purpose.
Danner Seyffer brought his Cryptic Scouts of America and was the troop leader in the room. He has an awful lot of of fun with the persona!
Nadine who traveled from Toledo, has seen Bigfoot and tells a horrifying story of her encounter with the Dogman. Immediately after the encounter, she fled her home so fast she wasn’t able to retrieve all of her belongings.
Later in the evening was the regional premier of the Frogman movie, a “Lovecraftian nightmare”. I chatted with the principals and the special effects artist who demonstrated the “Wand” that was so instrumental in the first sighting of our Loveland Frog. They want the world to know the truth about the Frogman “because the croaks are no hoax.”
Jeff said that for over fifteen years, he was a vendor at many events like the Point Pleasant, West Virginia Mothman Festival. In 2008 he came out with his “Hidden Ohio Map & Guide“, a full color, 2-sided paper map that pinpoints over 300 haunted and other unusual places in Ohio. Jeff would sell the map along with stickers and other items at the Mothman Festival which then was fairly small compared to what it has become. He said, “I’ve watched it grow over the years and when I came out with my national map of haunted and unusual places called Map in Black in 2021, I started traveling further away to do events. I decided we needed to celebrate the legend we have right here in our area, the Loveland Frogman. I noticed as I went to many events in other states, people had heard of the Frogman and would create art for the Frog’s fans and other items to celebrate the creature. The stories needed to be honored right here in the Little Miami River valley.”
Jeff’s Map in Black covers Aliens/UFOs, Ancient American Sites, Cryptids, Ecology, Hauntings, Military/Government sites, Native Lands, and Sacred Geography.
Putting the Sweetheart Resort of Ohio and our Frog on the map
There were over 1000 attendees. at the 2nd Annual Frogman Festival. The first, last March was at the Great Wolf Lodge near Kings Island. Jeff said that he doesn’t know the “very furthest traveller”, however, many people drove hundreds of miles from Minnesota, Kansas, and Virginia. One of the vendors is from Montreal, Canada and travelled down to Loveland the day before. Many vendors were from out of state including, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Western New York, and Tennessee. One YouTube blogger, The Carpetbagger who has over a million followers drove nine hours overnight from Georgia to attend the festival and share his many stories throughout the day.
Matthew Schang, AKA Mothboy Matt told me that he traveled from Western New York to entertain festival goers. When he told me he knows Criyptids jokes I thought I asked a very logical question at an event filled with people who have experienced sudden strange encounters. I asked, “Knock, knock, who’s there?” Mothboy Matt was stumped. I also stumped him when I asked if he knew any Loveland Frog jokes. Mothboy Matt did tell me a Mothman joke, and described it “dad joke”. Mothboys is his podcast on Cryptids, Conspiracies, and the Unknown.
“Loveland had a great representation at the festival so big thanks to all who attended as well as the businesses and groups that provided help in spreading the word about the event, especially Loveland Magazine”, Jeff said. “We have a unique legend here that people from all over the country and even the world have heard of so the festival helps give the story a physical presence for people to experience. We aren’t out trying to prove anything, we just want to celebrate the stories, not just of Frogman, but the many unusual or mysterious happenings across the Tri-State region. I saw pictures on social media from attendees and vendors who had come from out of town and they were posting shots from the Loveland Castle and various locations as they explored our region before and after the event.”
There are plans for a 3rd annual Frogman Festival but details still need to be finalized.
Dare I proclaim as first suggested by an attendee that the first Saturday in March is hereby and forever proclaimed, “Loveland Frog Day”.
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Sometimes hilarious, but always creepy, join hosts Laura Kram and Creepy Acres very own resident Bigfoot, Sam Squatch, as they delve into mysterious cryptid encounters and inexplicable occurrences to bring you “This Week in Creepy History”!
This week’s episode was The Loveland Frogman!
In the first weeks of March 1972 the city of Loveland, Ohio, a sleepy suburb of Cincinnati, was the scene of one of the most bizarre and unusual cases in all of cryptozoology. 2 different police officers, 2 weeks apart, would both separately encounter what some would describe as a 3-foot-tall, bipedal, frog faced entity. What was perhaps more outrageous was that this wasn’t the first time Loveland, Ohio had been visited by such creatures!
Join hosts Laura Kram and Creepy Acres’ very own resident Bigfoot, Sam Squatch, as they speak with author and researcher James A. Willis (WEIRD WILLIS) about the Loveland Frogman! So sit back and prepare for THIS WEEK IN CREEPY HISTORY!
James A. Willis is the author of numerous books on Ohio legends and lore including “Weird Ohio”, “Ohio’s Historic Haunts”, “Central Ohio Legends & Lore”, “Southern Ohio Legends & Lore”, and many more!
You can find James A. Willis on his Facebook page, or at his websites “My Strange and Spooky World” and “Ghosts of Ohio”!
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