Frogs are a part of the history and lore of Windham county. History has it that on a hot July night in 1754, townsfolk became alarmed at shrieks and cries coming from a nearby swamp. Fearing an Indian uprising they fired their muskets into the dark. The next morning they found dozens of dead frogs around the swamp. The noise was from male frogs fighting over the shrinking puddles of water. This became know as The Great Windham Frog Fight and has been lauded in local story and song.
The frog is on the seal of Windham County, and to celebrate the place of frogs and thread mills in Windham history, giant bronze frogs, sitting on spools of thread adorn the Thread City Crossing Bridge in Willimantic Connecticut. For more on these topics, check out the following links:
Connecticut Roads: The Frog Bridge
Hanging by a Thread (Zippy the Pinhead visits the Frog Bridge, June 4, 2001)