My wife Betsy and I had gone for a drive to the northeast corner of the state to find a window for our shed. On our way down Route 66 in Windham County we came across these giant bullfrogs standing guard at the Thread City Crossing ("Frog Bridge" at Route 32)..
I researched their origin and discovered that they were sculpted between 1999 and 2001 by an artist named Leo Jensen. They are to commemorate what has come to be known as the Windham Frog Fight of 1754. The frogs sit upon spools of thread representing Willimantic's historic place in the manufacture of cotton thread.
The following account of Windham's famous frog fight is condensed from David E. Phillips' Legendary Connecticut (1984):
In 1754 Windham's Colonel Eliphalet Dyer raised a local regiment to fight in the French and Indian War. Those left behind felt vulnerable to attack. The Windhamites worst fears seemed realized during a steamy-hot June night when unearthly screams emanated from the darkness: Valiant villagers grabbed muskets and fired blindly into the night.' Some believed that the Day of Judgment had arrived, and gave prayer. Others hid under their beds. .
The awful truth was revealed at dawn. Several hundred dead and dying bullfrogs were discovered in a dried-up millpond, two miles east of the village center. They had fought to the death in futile attempts to find moisture in the drought-ridden pond. Windham became forever known as the scene of the "Battle of the Frogs."
