Loveland Frogman News

For those of you who haven’t yet heard of the Loveland Frogman, you can check out this post. Not a lot of info on it there, but links to where you can read more. And a movie!

I’ve gotten so hooked on the Frogmen of Loveland that I wrote a fictional novella about them and will have that out sometime soon.

Recently I started driving for Uber, and I’ve met a lot of interesting people. To clear the air now, NO, I did not give a Frogman an Uber ride. Frogmen do not own or know how to use smart phones.

Tonight I was driving a guy to his house and we got to talking about Bigfoot, and then I brought up the Frogman. He told me the worst news I could ever possibly think to hear. One of the officers originally involved with the Frogman came out earlier this month to a local news station and said the whole thing was a hoax.

Well, not so much a hoax as it was just an iguana. Even though both he and the original officer who saw the Frogman said for sure that the iguana was what they saw, the legend lived on.

You can read the entire article on WCPO’s website.

I don’t know about you, but I still believe.

The Loveland Frogmen

I’ve been in Cincinnati my entire life and I had never heard of the Loveland Frogmen until Rick posted something about them over at Creepy Cincinnati. Ever since then I’ve been hooked.

I’ve done a lot of searching on them and come up with pretty much nothing. There have only been two documented sightings, one fake sighting, and nothing in the last 40 years. There are, however, a ton of investigations by Cryptozoology groups and paranormal investigators, and other sites talking about them, which makes me wonder how it took me so long to finally hear about them.

I discovered in 2010 a short film was made about them by some high schoolers. I’ll post the videos below. I also discovered earlier this year (2014) two guys wrote and performed a play about the Frogmen. I would have loved to have seen that.

Anyway, my obsession isn’t over yet. I might have to go camping around the Loveland area to see if I can catch me a Frogman!

Local Urban Legends: Lucy Run Cemetery Road

I first heard of this place just the other day when I was visiting some members of my wife’s family who live on the road. The story I was told was that it was the most haunted road in Ohio. It got its name from a girl named Lucy, who a long time ago lived near where the road is now and she was engaged to a guy. She caught him cheating and in a fit of anger she took off on a horse in the night, riding through the creek to get away. Somehow she fell off the horse and died in the creek, and her body was never found. But now her ghost hangs out all up and down the road. My wife’s cousin who lives there, lives right alongside the creek. He also said he often hears his name being called when nobody is around, but he passes it off as other stuff.

I did some research and found this video and another story that more people typically tell, and it says this all took place in 1806 and she was engaged, but her soon-to-be came to the house one stormy night to tell her he had fallen in love with another woman and was going to be with her, not Lucy. He then left the house quickly and she went after him, out into the storm. She missed the bridge crossing the creek and the high waters washed her off of her horse and she drowned.

She does have a grave at the nearby cemetery, so I’m guessing the first story I heard was only mostly true. And as far as I know, this story is mostly urban legend and folklore, but the street is named Lucy Run cemetery Road, so maybe there is truth to the story.

Other variations exist, saying she was bucked off of her horse, or she was washed away by the deep creek waters. One thing is for sure, there are a lot of people who claim that she can be seen running from her grave, down the hill, across the road, and into the creek. I haven’t seen her do that, but to be fair I’ve only been on the road once.

Regardless if this one is true or not, it’s a cool tale and one that could easily be checked out. Maybe one day I’ll go down there and give it a proper haunt hunt.

The road is off of 132 in Batavia, OH. If you go, be respectful. People live there.

Local Urban Legends: Oxford Ghost Light

In Oxford, OH, right down the road from Miami University, is an age old legend about a ghost motorcyclist who rides up and down the road. For a few of the stories about its history, Creepy Cincinnati has them all laid out. You can also check out this Google search, that comes up with Youtube videos of people doing this, as well as others tales of when they went.

The story I was told was, a man had gone off to fight in a war and when he came home he rode his motorcycle over to his girlfriends house to surprise her, only to find her with another man. Upset, he rode his motorcycle away from her house, speeding down the road at night in the rain, and he ran off the road, killing himself.

Now, if you park in a particular spot at the top of one of the hills on the road, and you face a certain way, and you turn your car off and flash your headlights three times, he’s supposed to come riding towards you. You’re supposed to see only the headlight from his motorcycle riding over one hill, then the next, then the next, then disappearing as it gets to you. The light from his headlight is supposed to be very bright but not reflect or shine off of anything.

Great story! That’s the stuff urban legends are made of! Now, here’s what happened the first time when I actually saw it.

I was 18. I was dating a girl, and her older brother had gotten me a job where he worked. One day we were standing around talking and he told me about the ghost light. I had never heard of it before, and since Oxford was just under an hour away from me I thought it would be awesome to check it out. I pestered him and pestered him all day until finally he gave in. He said to me something like, “I haven’t been out in a while, I’ll have to call my buddy to get directions.” Yet earlier he told me he used to go out with his buddies all the time and he had been out there hundreds of times. Since he took me my first time 16 years ago, I’ve been MAYBE 5 times, the last being about 14 years ago. I can still find it, as it’s not hard to find. Yet at the time, I didn’t catch what he had said and thought nothing of it.

A few days went by and every now and then I’d bring it up. Finally he said he had got in touch with his buddy and “everything was set up.” I didn’t catch that either.

We planned a night where he and his girlfriend drove me and my girlfriend, his sister, out there to see this light. We drove to the spot and past it once, he never said why and only now do I know why. We circled around and went back to that spot and stopped. He shut the engine off. It was in the summer and just about dusk.

Local Urban Legends: Lick Road/Amy

I haven’t been to Lick Road in a long time. I used to only go for the legend, and this is what I had been told by people about it.

It’s a dead end road, but apparently it used to not be. There also used to be a train that crossed that road. The last time I was out there you could still barely see a rail road crossing sign painted on the road, which I always thought was cool since the road doesn’t continue and there’s no tracks anywhere.

What I was told was, many years ago when the road went through and the train intersected it, a woman named Amy was getting ready for her wedding. She was running late, so she was in a hurry. She drove up Lick Road quickly, but just as she came to the train tracks she was hit by a deer and her car spun out of control. It stopped spinning on the tracks, and Amy was knocked unconscious. She came-to just as she heard a train coming. She couldn’t get her car started in time and the train hit the car, killing Amy.

As sad as that is, it’s an urban legend, so chances are it never happened. I don’t know if anybody has ever actually looked into this to see if it really did happen, but despite it being an urban legend, the people around the area know of it and Amy. For many years her name was spray painted on road signs both on Lick Road and on Kemper Road, the road that Lick is off of, and I want to say there were 5 in total that had her name on it. In recent years all of the signs have been replaced. I remember my friends and I all believing her name was a ghostly reminder, because as you would pass the signs the name would vanish from them. It was just a matter of lighting and angles, but it was creepy.

I was told that if you go out to the end of Lick Road and turn your car so that you are facing back towards Kemper, and you flash your lights three times, she’ll appear. I tried that many times and never saw a thing.

However, one day I was told by a friend’s sister that she heard you had to flash your lights once, then three times, then repeat, once then three times. She said if it works, you go through what Amy did. You hear the hooves of a deer alongside your car, then your car jars as if it was hit. Then you hear a train coming, your car shakes a bunch, and then it all stops. Amy then appears and asks you for a ride to the church where she’s to be married. Apparently you have to give her a ride, or bad things happen.

Well, after hearing this we decided to go give it a try. I parked, shut off the engine, and flashed. Once, then three times. After a few minutes of flashing my headlights, I heard what sounded like hooves on the road next to my car. In the dark I couldn’t see much, but I could see enough that there was no deer visible. I do swear that I heard the hooves on pavement, though.

The car didn’t shake or jar or anything, but shortly after the hooves I heard what sounded like an old whistle, one that might belong to a train. My friend’s sister got scared and said she wanted to go, so we left.

I don’t know what I heard, but I still have yet to see Amy. I went back a few more times after that and tried her method, but never even got the hooves or the whistle.

Should you decide to go, remember, there are people who live on that road, but not many. Sometimes they get suspicious of cars traveling on their street and they will call the cops. Never mind them calling, the cops patrol the area regularly. Since this is a popular spot, you might run into a bunch of other people out there trying to see Amy, too. Don’t vandalize anything if you go, be respectful.

For another take and more info on this story, check out Creepy Cincinnati! (They looked into it and Amy most likely didn’t really exist.)

DIRECTIONS:
From I-275 you can take either the Hamilton Avenue or the Colerain Avenue exits, and head north.
From Colerain, turn right on Kemper. Lick Road will be on your left a few miles up the road.
From Hamilton, turn left on Kemper (there is a UDF on the corner). Lick will be a few miles up the road on the right.

Click for bigger image.

Local Urban Legends: New Miami Barn

There is a story about a barn in New Miami that goes something like this…

There was a farm, many years ago, where a small family lived. Husband, wife and daughter. Not many kids for a farm, eh? Well, the father was apparently a drunk and abusive man, and he regularly beat his wife and daughter.

One night he decided he was going to beat on the mom and in a drunken rage he killed her in the kitchen. The daughter, hiding through this, ran to her mother as she lay dying on the kitchen floor after the father left the room.

The mother died in her arms, and the daughter then heard the father coming back, so she ran into the barn. Scared for her life, she apparently wrote “Help me!” on the wall of the barn in her mothers blood. The father found her and killed her in the barn.

The townspeople found out about this and wanted to rid themselves of the drunken, abusive man, and formed a posse. They went to his house and burned it down with him in it when he refused to come out. He had then apparently died in the fire as the house collapsed around him.

I’m not entirely sure where this is supposed to be located, other than it’s in New Miami. Years ago I was out driving with friends and discovered a creepy barn that was falling in next to a pile of rubble that looked as if a small house had once stood there. We decided that was the location for it.

Because this is on private property in the middle of corn fields, we never stopped to have a look. Until one day when I absolutely decided I had to check it out. I stopped by the only house I found near it and went to the door to ask for permission to be on the property. I caught several women having a good time in their kitchen. It appeared to be three generations of that family, a grandmother, mother and two or three daughters who looked to be just younger than I was at the time.

The mother told me it was called the Hatchetman Barn. I asked why and she said if you go there the Hatchetman will come and “GET YOU!” We laughed, but she then told me it wasn’t her family’s property but she didn’t see why it would be a problem for me to check it out.

I lied and told her my mother was a fan of barns of all types and I wanted to get pictures of it for her. My mother IS a fan of barns, but that wasn’t why I wanted pictures, obviously.

So I went to the barn, parked my car just off of the road in the corn field, which hadn’t begun to grow yet for that year, and I went inside.

There wasn’t much inside to it. It was a small barn, the woman told me it was used for housing pigs, and not many at that. There were only about 4 or 5 stalls where the pigs would have been kept, and a loft which I didn’t go to.

The entire time I was there I felt creeped out. It felt as if I were being watched. Coupled with the fact that there were thick woods behind the barn that I couldn’t see in to, I got a bit too creeped out and left. I would love to go back sometime, just to see if it’s still standing, and maybe also to do some EVP work and get more pictures. The pictures I did take then didn’t turn out so well.

Should I ever happen to go back I’ll post it here. I believe this “Hatchetman Barn” is on Wehr Road. If you turn onto it off of Morganthaler, you’ll come to the first sharp right turn. When you get to that turn, look to your left and you should see the barn sitting just a few yards off the road. Remember, this is private property. Don’t be disrespectful.