Motorcycles, Travel & Adventure

Motorcycle TourMagazine

About Mysterious America

This column, hosted by our own Dr. Seymour O'life, goes out of its way to bring you the bizarre, strange, uncanny, and just plain mysterious places that dot this fair land. Perhaps it is a huge Buddha statue in New York or a state park in Pennsylvania, where the stones ring like bells - each month is always a peculiar jewel when it comes to Mysterious America.

The Battle of the Frogs • Connecticut's Wildest War

If you are riding through the quiet corner of Connecticut these days, and happen to be passing through the town of Willimantic, you might find it a bit odd that the bridge in town has giant frogs sitting atop huge thread spools.

You might ask yourself, “Hey, what’s up with dat?”

Well kids, Doctor O’Life is hear to give you the low down on a bit of forgotten Mysterious America.

This is a true story; a genuine tale from Mysterious America’s past. When things are tense, as you will see, a lot can happened to easily panic a town.

Back in the mid-1700’s Connecticut was still a frontier land and the idea of the French troops or local tribes stealing into town in the middle of the night, to burn it down, was an ever-present threat on people’s minds.

With a population of about a thousand inhabitants, Windham was one of the leading towns of the day. The times were hard, though. A disease had recently struck the town, and the French and Indians were a constant threat. Rumors of massacres and atrocities ran rampant while many of the men were away fighting the French or with Putnam fighting Indians. Windhamites often thought about the possibility of an attack, so it’s no surprise that on a hot, dark, June night in 1754 they thought their worst suspicions had come true. What they expected and what actually did happen, however, are two different things.

A black servant of Parson White’s named Pomp was returning home around midnight, after seeing a lady friend at a nearby farmhouse. As he walked down the dark road, he neared the Windham Green. It was there he began to hear a strange and terrifying sound echoing through the night air. The noise seemed to come from everywhere at once. Pomp rushed home to awaken his master, shrieking all the way. Parson White then proceeded to sound the alarm, waking those who had not already been aroused by this awful sound or by the screaming of Pomp. As the noise continued, most thought it was an Indian ritual and by morning they would surely all be dead.

People began running about. Women shrieked, children cried, and men prepared for battle as the strange and mournful sound continued. A makeshift, ragtag army assembled on the green. Men were running about armed with pitchforks, knives, clubs and old swords, while a few actually had guns. Confusion and fear swept the village as the Windhamites listened and waited. Some claimed to have heard the savages calling, “We’ll have Colonel Dyer, Colonel Dyer, Elderkin too, Elderkin too.” This scared the townspeople even more. Many claimed to have distinguished Indian chants and drums among the noise. Others said there was nothing on earth that could make such an outlandish commotion and contended that it could only mean one thing; it is the judgment day and nothing could be done to save them except prayer. They waited and waited, expecting that they would all be dead by morning, but the savage army never appeared.

Colonel Dyer, Colonel Elderkin and a Mr. Gray then rode their horses up Mullin Hill toward the strange sound to determine just what it was. As they approached a small pond, they found that this was the source of the commotion. Some reports contend that the three actually fired shots toward the pond. Whatever happened that night is not clear but what they found were—thousands of dead and dying frogs, some still making their war cries. No one is sure why the frogs died. The theory held at the time was that they died fighting each other, possibly for the small amount of water in the lowered pond.

When the three men returned and reported their find, the townspeople were humiliated. “Some were pleased, and some were mad, some turned it off with laughter, and some would never hear a word about the thing thereafter. Some vowed that if the Devil himself should come they would flee him, and if a frog they ever met, pretend not to see him.” Although the area did not have a newspaper, the story quickly spread from town to town and eventually across the land. Windhamites became the butt of jokes and lawyers in particular were harassed with the bullfrog story.

As the years wore on, future generations learned to take the jokes and eventually became proud of the incident. This strange event was now an important part of Windham’s history, which should not be forgotten. It has since been immortalized in poetry and song, such as “Lawyers and Bull Frogs” and “The Epic of Windham”, and to top it off, a frog eventually became the central figure of the town seal.

These days the, Willimantic's Frog Bridge, officially known as the Thread City Crossing, connects Routes 66 and 32 across the Willimantic River and a rail line. Its distinctive architectural motifs - four 11-foot frogs atop giant spools of thread - remind passersby of the city's history, and create a can't-miss landmark.

But not many really know of the historic significance of the frogs atop the bridge and it is good to know that hundreds of years later the good people of the Nutmeg state still can smile at themselves.