A couple shots because the frogs, with seasonal scarves, are just cool, but research was needed at home!

Credits: Lily Pond by the designers at The Studio

Journaling:
The giant spools of thread on the bridge into town I get. The trains tracks run by an old thread mill and Willimantic history is rich in the thread industry. But a ride through town had us seeing frogs everywhere. In windows, novelty shops, the town bank, what’s up with the frogs?

In the mid 1700s, during the French and Indian War, the townsfolk of Willimantic were awakened by loud shrieking noises, bellowing that sounded like it was coming down on them from above or approaching from near. Many of the able-bodied men of the town were north in battle and those who remained ran out of their homes in the middle of the night, some firing shots to ward off perceived attackers, some falling to their knees in prayer, fearing judgment day was upon them.

By the first light of morning, the terrible sounds had mostly quelled with no fatalities or missing in the town. A few brave townspeople went to see what they could find out. What they discovered was a nearly dried pond, drained by drought or a local mill, with a mass of dead and dying frogs on its parameter. What was thought to be an attack of judgment was actually a mass of frogs fighting for the last drop of water and space in the pond.

It made the area the laughing stock of Connecticut. Now they laugh at themselves.