On a summer night in July 1754, the townspeople of Windham, Connecticut, were awakened by an unusual noise whose source they couldn’t identify. The French and Indian War had recently broken out and, fearing an attack, a scouting party was sent out to investigate. By morning, it was discovered that the sound was hundreds of bullfrogs, many of which were found dead in a nearby mill pond. News of Windham’s embarrassing “battle” with the frogs spread throughout the colony and became a running joke in the region. Ballads and exaggerated accounts of the incident spread rapidly. The townspeople adopted the frog as a mascot of the community, creating a town seal with a frog and using frog vignettes on Windham Bank currency. The Thread City Crossing in Willimantic is known as the “Frog Bridge” for the enormous copper frogs that perch at each corner. Various theories for the behavior of the frogs have been raised, with some sources speculating that a severe drought that summer caused the frogs to fight for access to scarce water. Others suggest that there had been an outbreak of disease among the frogs. Herpetologist Susan Z. Herrick believes that with so many male bullfrogs in a small pond, the shrieking was simply mating calls to attract females. She went on to say that with no coordination of the mating calls, the awful noise is what villagers heard. Whatever the reason for the bullfrogs descending on Windham that summer night, the town definitely became the “laughing stock of the colonies.”
