Ohio: Bigfoot & The Loveland Frog

This week, the Backwoods Cryptid Road Trip rolls into Loveland, Ohio, a quiet river town northeast of Cincinnati with one of the strangest creature legends in America.

In March 1972, Loveland police officer Ray Shockey was patrolling an icy stretch of Riverside Drive near the old Totes factory when he spotted something crouched in the road. According to his account, the creature stood upright, looked directly at him, and moved over the guardrail toward the Little Miami River.

Two weeks later, fellow officer Mark Matthews reported his own encounter on the same road and fired his revolver at what he saw. Decades later, Matthews would publicly offer a very different explanation for that night. But the Loveland Frog story may go back even further. The episode revisits a 1955 account recorded by investigator Leonard Stringfield, in which witness Robert Hunnicutt described three strange gray figures near a bridge, including one allegedly holding a wand-like object that gave off sparks.

Then, in 2016, a photograph taken during the Pokémon Go craze pushed the Loveland Frog back into the national spotlight and once again raised the question of what people have really been seeing along the river.

Brian also digs into lesser-known local reports involving a canoe livery, a late-night drive home, and a catfishing spot near Nisbet Park before heading east into the hills of Appalachian Ohio.

From there, the road leads into some of the state’s best-known Bigfoot country, including the 1978 Minerva Monster case, as well as reported Grassman encounters from East Fork, Vinton County, Wayne National Forest, Salt Fork State Park, Noble County, Shawnee State Forest, and Zaleski State Forest.

From frogmen along the Little Miami to massive hairy figures in the Appalachian foothills, Ohio proves to be one of the strangest stops yet on the Backwoods Cryptid Road Trip.

If you have an encounter or a stop Brian should add to the map, email brian@paranormalworldproductions.com.



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Have you experienced a Bigfoot sighting, Sasquatch encounter, Dogman experience, UFO sighting, or any unexplained cryptid or paranormal event deep in the woods? We want to hear your story.

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Backwoods Bigfoot Stories is a paranormal storytelling podcast featuring real Bigfoot encounters, Sasquatch sightings, Dogman reports, cryptid experiences, and true scary stories from the backwoods.

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