Steven Michael Photography

Amphibious Invasion

Milton-Freewater, Oregon

You can just imagine how surprised we were when we came across an eastern Oregon town, known for its dry climate and high wheat production, "invaded" with giant bullfrogs.

On just about every street corner or business front, a giant statue of a bullfrog resides. Each statue either "complimented" and/or "advertised" for the business in which it stood in front of, for example; The frog in front of the bank resembled the classic western bank robber...

The frog in front of the hotel was ready for bed wearing a nightgown and night cap...

And, the frog out front of the attorney's office was dressed ready for the next case.

It was entertaining for us to drive around in search of another frog statue, but we did wonder, "why all the frogs in such a dry region?" So, we stopped at a little shop in Old-Town Freewater to get some answers. Answers we did get, but we still wondered, "why frogs?"

The town of Milton-Freewater was once known as the pea capital of the world and they even celebrated yearly with the Pea Festival. But, by the late 1970's the annual festival in town was facing a tragic and untimely demise.

The "Pea Festival", which celebrated the area's largest agricultural crop, was declining in attendance and participation, probably for a variety of reasons.

Perhaps the Festival's royal court may have objected to the titles of "Pea Queen" or "Pea Princess", or the royal court had issues having to deal with any misunderstanding or misspelling of the PEA name.

However, for whatever the reason, every small town must have a yearly festival and the search was on for a new one.

Milton-Freewater had many choices they could have capitalized on to celebrate a new festival, like grapes, corn, onions, wine, wheat...just to name a few.

(the eight frog pictures shown above were taken from the Internet)

So, when the Muddy Frogwater Festival was born it didn't come without some controversy. Today, there is even a Facebook page dedicated for those who "hate" the frog theme.

The Facebook page title reads,

"It's MILTON-FREEWATER...not 'muddy frogwater'...we are tired of pond scum and frogs!" One fan of the page wrote,

"Muddy Frogwater is degrading. We need to have something that shows pride in our community."

Another fan shared his disapproval by writing,

"Muddy Frogwater....what a joke...no one has liked it as long as I can remember. Seems like every time I come back home to visit there are more stupid "festival" frogs up. Does the community really think that it makes the city look better...when in reality it just makes it look stupid!"

A frog themes does seem a bit odd for the area mainly because frogs are not indigenous to the region, except for a small illusive tree frog.

But, to be fair to the city's embrace using frogs, the Facebook page, hating the frog theme, has only 376 fans, and very little activity can be found on it. No theme or mascot will make EVERYBODY in Milton-Freewater happy whether it be a frog, a fruit, or a vegetable.

The frog theme, though controversial for some, must be doing something right because three decades later the frog mascot still lives on, despite the fact the town once imported frogs for the annual frog races. But, due to the stress on the imported frogs, the city no longer has frog races as part of the festival.

We learned that local businesses were able to purchase a frog for around $125.00 and the rest was paid by a grant given to the city. Most of the frog statues around town started showing up in 2005.

Most of the wooden frog statues have been well taken care of either by the property owner or with city help. An occasional application of fresh paint would not only help preserve the wood from the elements, but it would also keep the city's pride alive and looking "new" and inviting for the next visitor passing through town. For we all know how important FIRST IMPRESSIONS can be.

Unfortunately though, when not properly maintenanced, weather and time and vandalism can take its toll on the statues. We sadly found several frogs in need of serious repair.

Some frogs had limbs broken off like the frog at Les Schwab. Some were in need of a paint job. One frog, which promotes the Logs for Frogs wood carving competition, was missing the very chainsaw he was suppose to be carrying. And, some frogs were missing altogether and yet the missing frogs were still apart of the tourist brochure.

Hopefully the city officials of Milton-Freewater will do what they can and financially help keep up the proper maintenance of these very unique wooden statues...statues which promote city pride. Such a job shouldn't be left on the store owners alone. I feel the frogs are a city thing.

What if the city created an "adopt-a-frog" program? A program that would have no need to tap into a city budget. The state of Oregon has the "adopt-a-highway" program, why not a frog program?

Just imagine what can happen if an elementary class, or a high school art or wood shop class, or a 4H group, or the boyscout and girlscouts, or a church, or even an individual family "adopted" a frog or two and helped preserve the city's mascot. Such a program could ultimately bring a positive renewal back into the workings of city pride.

It would be ashamed to see the very things that literally put Milton-Freewater on a map get to such a deteriorating level that the damage would be irreversible.

Freewater. It is different, it is very unique, and it is clever. Other cities can learn a lot from such an "out-of-the-box" idea.

When we were driving through Milton-Freewater, we originally had no intention of stopping in the town, for our destination was Walla Walla, eight miles to the north. But, the frog statues caught our attention and therefore, the purpose of the frogs did their job, for we did stop.

We did go searching for more frogs.

We were entertained by the frogs and we were impressed with the frogs.