Willimantic

Of these old mill towns, the largest is Willimantic, which has earned not one but two nicknames: “Thread City” for the town’s former most significant product; and “Frog City” for the momentous colonial-era amphibian battle that took place in village of Windham. (See The Great Frog Battle below.)

A typically depressed former mill town, Willimantic has bounced back with a surfeit of civic pride in recent years, thanks in part to the construction of Thread City Crossing (Rte. 661 at Main St.), a bridge built in 2000 that features 11-foot-tall bronze frogs sitting on giant spools of thread.

The ultimate in roadside kitsch, the bridge has brought hundreds of tourists off the beaten track to view it, and even inspired a “Zippy the Pinhead” comic in 2001 [1]. That, in turn, has led to more public displays of art and an active cultural scene. On the southern edge of the Quiet Corner [2], the postcard-ready town of Lebanon [3] is the center of the region’s colonial history.

The Great Frog Battle

During a steamy June night in 1754, the settlers of the village of Windham awoke to terrible screams. Thinking that they were being attacked by Native American tribes—or perhaps vengeful ghosts—they grabbed their muskets and waited anxiously for morning. At first light, a hardy group of villagers set out in the direction of the noise, where to their shock they found hundreds of dead and dying bullfrogs who had apparently fought in a midnight battle over a puddle at the bottom of the drought-ravaged pond.

The event was so remarkable that versions of the story have been passed down ever since, and town fathers even put a frog on the town seal in honor of the fallen.