Field Notes Ohio

Ohio's parks, forests and wildlife areas with camping, the ancient mounds beside them, and the Buckeye Trail that links them. Stories, trails, wildlife, and where to eat and fuel up nearby. Book campsites on ReserveOhio.
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The Buckeye TrailA 1,444-mile blue-blazed loop around Ohio, with all 26 sections.
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Mounds & Earthworks43 ancient sites, including the Great Serpent Mound and the Newark Earthworks.
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Historic Sites39 places, from Fort Steuben and Zoar to Camp Chase and the Rankin House, from the frontier to the Civil War.
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Road Trips33 drives, from the Lincoln Highway to the Morgan Heritage Trail.
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Lake Erie Beaches20 public beaches from Conneaut to Toledo and the islands, with a map.
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Oddities & Roadside Attractions19 giants, ghosts and folk-art stops, plus a Mothman just over the line.
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Caves & Caverns12 show caverns, recess caves and rock shelters, with a map.
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Waterfalls34 falls from the Cuyahoga Valley to the Hocking Hills, with trail notes and a map.
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Lake ErieWest Virginia27 places277 places77 places73 places35 places519 places1913 places1319 places1916 places168 places810 places1010 places109 places98 places820 places204 places43 places3Barkcamp State Park4 places47 places77 places76 places69 places917 places173 places3Harrison Lake State Park2 places2Forked Run State Park3 places32 places26 places610 places103 places32 places2

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117 parks in 7 regions

The Loveland Frogman

Loveland · Clermont, Hamilton and Warren counties
Cryptid legend

Visiting information you can trust

Check before driving — this site is seasonal, approximate, privately run, or otherwise uncertain. Confirm hours and access with the official source above.
Content last reviewed
September 2026 — this is when Field Notes Ohio's content was last checked, not a live status.
Primary official source
Official page
Location confidence
Approximate — boundary or exact point not confirmed
Approximate location, use the address
Check current conditions
Official conditions or closures
Reservations or tickets
Tickets or admission info

Prices, hours, closures, campsite availability and trail conditions shown elsewhere on this page are not live — always confirm with the official source before you go.

A frog-faced creature reported along the Little Miami River in 1955 and again by a police officer in 1972, now the small city's official mascot.

1955 account
A local businessman reportedly told police he saw three leathery, frog-faced creatures, three to four feet tall, near the river at night; no report survives
1972 report
Loveland police officer Ray Shockey said an animal darted in front of his patrol car on Riverside Drive, crouched like a frog, then climbed a guardrail toward the river
Likely explanation
Weeks later, a second officer said he shot and identified the same or a similar animal as an escaped pet iguana missing its tail
Grown in the telling
Decades of retellings, books and a 2023 horror film blurred the 1955 and 1972 accounts into one continuous legend
Made official
In 2023 the City of Loveland adopted the Frogman as its city mascot, appearing at local events
Nearby
Loveland Castle (Chateau Laroche), a stone castle built by hand along the same river, is about a mile or two downstream

The story

Loveland's monster legend has two layers, one reported and one mostly folklore. In 1955, local lore holds that a businessman driving along the Little Miami River late at night saw three small, upright, frog-faced creatures with leathery skin near a bridge; no police report from that year survives, and the story is known mainly through secondhand retellings. The legend gained real documentation on March 3, 1972, when Loveland police officer Ray Shockey reported that an animal darted in front of his patrol car on Riverside Drive near the river. He described a three- to four-foot, leathery creature that crouched like a frog before climbing a guardrail toward the water, and the account was picked up by regional media as the story of the Loveland Frogman.

Within weeks a second officer, Mark Matthews, said he shot and recovered the same or a similar animal in the same stretch of river and identified it as a large pet iguana, missing its tail, likely an escaped pet surviving near a nearby factory's warm water discharge. Matthews has said publicly that the whole episode was a mundane case of a lost reptile blown into a monster story, in part because early accounts left the iguana identification out. The tale kept growing anyway, through books, retellings and a 2023 horror film that blended the unverified 1955 account with the documented 1972 report into one continuous legend. Rather than dispute it, the city leaned in: in 2023 Loveland made the Frogman its official mascot, a lighthearted nod to a monster story that likely started with someone's missing pet.

The 1955 sighting is unverified local lore; the 1972 police report and its likely iguana explanation are the best-documented parts of the story. The map location is approximate, centered on downtown Loveland's riverfront trail.

Visiting

Status
Open; public trail and riverfront
Hours
The Little Miami Scenic Trail and downtown riverfront are open dawn to dusk.
Cost
Free.
Phone
City of Loveland, 513-683-0150
Please note
Stay on the trail; a couple of miles downstream, Loveland Castle offers a separate paid tour.
Address
Little Miami Scenic Trail at W Loveland Ave, Loveland, OH 45140
More information →DirectionsShow on the map

The pin on the map is approximate; use the address for directions.

Hours, prices and even the attractions themselves can change. Confirm before a long drive.

Parks nearby

Caesar Creek State Park
About 21 miles · A lake park with a lakeshore trail.
Open
East Fork State Park
About 21 miles · A large lake park east of Cincinnati.
Open

Buckeye Trail

Loveland Section
Near the Buckeye Trail
Open

Details last checked 2026-09-22. Confirm hours and prices before you go.