The Coleman Frog

The story of the Coleman Frog began in the 1880s. That’s when, according to legend, an ordinary frog jumped into the boat of a local businessman, Fred Coleman, while he was fishing upon Killarney Lake. For some reason-this part of the story is murky-Coleman began giving the frog whiskey and whey, for which the little creature developed a huge appetite and grew to 19 kilograms in weight. Then there was an unfortunate accident: other fishermen, trying to improve angling in the lake, set off a dynamite blast, and the frog was a casualty. It remained intact, however, and was sent to a taxidermist in Maine. When it came back, it was installed in the lobby of a local hotel, the Barker House, which Coleman owned, and there it sat, an object of awe and scientific speculation. Eventually, it moved to the York-Sunbury Museum, where it resides yet. Interest has been world-wide, and any skeptics reading this should know that even experts at an outfit called the Canadian Conservation Institute, no toadies themselves, have hesitated to call the Coleman Frog a fraud.