Arizona Oddities

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Your Guides
  • Departments
    • Art
    • Dose of History
    • Culture
    • Natural Surroundings
    • Odd Observations
    • Weather Talk
    • Food & Dining
    • Small Town Scene
    • Recreation
    • Only in Arizona
  • Get the Books
  • Contact Us

logo

Arizona Oddities

  • Home
  • Your Guides
  • Departments
    • Art
    • Dose of History
    • Culture
    • Natural Surroundings
    • Odd Observations
    • Weather Talk
    • Food & Dining
    • Small Town Scene
    • Recreation
    • Only in Arizona
  • Get the Books
  • Contact Us
ArtOdd ObservationsSmall Town Scene
Home›Art›Sixty-Ton Frog Greets Drivers Along Highway 89

Sixty-Ton Frog Greets Drivers Along Highway 89

By Sam Lowe
July 7, 2009
2898
6

Just about a half mile north of downtown Congress, the old frog squats in the desert sun on a hillside along Highway 89.  It still looks pretty good, considering that it has been in that same spot for more than 80 years.

Of course, there are certain features that set this particular amphibian apart. For example, it weighs an estimated 60 tons, stands 16 feet high and is solid rock. And it needs a facial every now and then. The frog, a Congress landmark, existed in its natural state as a brownish-gray boulder from prehistoric times until 1928, when it underwent a wondrous metamorphosis from rock to art.

Frog smallIt was just another boulder perched on a side hill until Sara Perkins, a housewife, observed that if she squinted just right, the rock looked like a big frog. So she and her sons painted it green on top, white on the belly, added a mouth, eyes and spots and turned it into what became a tourist attraction. The Perkins family maintained and repainted the frog for years, and when they left the area, the citizens of Congress became the unofficial keepers of the croaker.

Now it gets a fresh coat of paint whenever the green fades because, as longtime resident George Carter once told me, “there ain’t much else around here to look at so that frog is pretty important to us.”

Sam Lowe is author of “Arizona Curiosities and New Mexico Curiosities” and is the Senior Travel Expert for Best Western International.

(Visited 337 times, 1 visits today)

Related Posts:

  1. Massive Duck Greets Drivers Along State Route 96
  2. Odd, Giant Ball Greets Drivers Entering Superior
  3. Know the Origin of the Frog Boulder near Cherry?
  4. Know the Origin of the Highway 89 Screamers?
  5. Sculpture Garden at Yavapai College Features a Fancy, 5-Foot Frog
Tagsartlandmarksrock formations

6 comments

  1. Glenn Baxter 19 July, 2009 at 07:15 Reply

    I’m confused about the location of this site. My map does not have a Highway 86 N of Congress, only a “62” and an “89”.

    Please clarify.

    Thanks,
    Glenn

    • AndreaAker 19 July, 2009 at 07:27 Reply

      Looking into this right now… we’ll get back with you soon. Thanks for reading!

  2. AndreaAker 19 July, 2009 at 08:41 Reply

    PLEASE NOTE CORRECTION: This massive croaker can be seen from Highway 89, not 86.

    Thanks to the readers who caught this!

  3. ThatDarnCat 3 July, 2012 at 09:37 Reply

    If you painted a rock today you would be drawn and quartered by eco-terrorists and then the EPA would confiscate all your property.

  4. Sculpture Garden at Yavapai College Features a Fancy, 5-Foot Frog | 26 March, 2013 at 06:01 Reply

    […] in seeking out giant frogs. Their most famous destination is a 16-ton boulder painted to look like a frog that sits along Highway 89 north of Congress. But there’s another, more sophisticated, oversized pond dweller on the […]

  5. Deanne Olivas 3 June, 2013 at 10:29 Reply

    I have not been to Congress but am familiar with many other sites along 89 as it meanders through Arizona. Love reading your posts, Cara. Arizona is the BEST!

Leave a reply Cancel reply

Arizona Oddities Archive

Most Popular Posts

  • How to Keep Scorpions Away from Your Home
  • How to Keep Javelinas Away from Your Yard
  • What’s With All the Backyard Concrete-Block Fences…
  • Did You Know it’s Against the Law to Grow…
  • Four Deserts, One State

This Week Past Years

2019

  • 5 Facts About the Southwest’s Strangest, Smelliest Inhabitant – The Javelina

2015

  • A Beer Between the Forked Tree in Flagstaff

2014

  • Mow the Lake?

2013

  • Peach-Faced Love Birds Live in the Valley?

2012

  • Walk in the Path of Ancient Hohokam at Sears-Kay Ruin
  • Rest Stop Marks Border of Gadsden Purchase

2010

  • Why Do People Paint Citrus Tree Trunks White?
  • Elephant Feet in Northern Arizona?
  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • Find a Famous Writer and Explorer's Mountain Retreat in Greer

    Find a Famous Writer and Explorer’s Historic Mountain Retreat in Greer

    By Taylor Haynes
    July 31, 2020
  • thousands of Mexican free tail bats make Phoenix tunnel their summer home

    Thousands of Mexican Free-Tail Bats Make Phoenix Tunnel Their Summer Home

    By Taylor Haynes
    July 17, 2020
  • How to Keep Scorpions Away from Your Home

    By Andrea Aker
    January 3, 2011
  • Javelina

    How to Keep Javelinas Away from Your Yard

    By Andrea Aker
    November 23, 2011
  • Phil Motta
    on
    August 27, 2021

    Why Does Downtown Phoenix Seem to Have Two Downtowns?

    I know this post ...
  • Carol
    on
    October 17, 2020

    The Tucson Artifacts are the Southwest’s Greatest Hoax

    lol ... these "clues" ...

Follow us

© Copyright 2009 – 2023 Aker Ink, LLC :: Arizona Oddities is published by Aker Ink.