Angels Camp, CA

Leaping Bullfrogs A Calaveras Tradition

It was high noon when Clyde Corsby, contestant No. 394, holding a squirming, pop-eyed and eager young frog, took his place in the midst of a huge crowd of cheering onlookers. Inside the designated 6-foot circle, Clyde dipped “Legs Diamond” into a bucket of warm water and abruptly dropped him in the center of a carpet square. What followed was a series of pleadings and proddings from Clyde, Legs’ “frog jockey,” who urged the croaker to jump, hopefully, to victory and a $5,000 grand prize.

The event creating such amphibious enthusiasm is the annual Calaveras County Fair and Frog Jumping Jubilee, which takes place the third weekend in May. We have writer and humorist Mark Twain to thank for the jamboree, hailed as one of America’s few truly original celebrations.

The small town of Angels Camp, Calif., (pop. 3,000) has hosted the fair each year since 1928. The town’s claim to fame is that it was the setting for Twain’s story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” First published in 1865, the tale elevated Twain to enduring fame.

In the early gold-mining years of the 1860s, when the Mother Lode Country was a Wild West region, Twain made a trip from San Francisco to a cabin in nearby Jackass Hill and visited the town of Angels Camp. It was on one of these jaunts that he stopped at the Angels Hotel, where the proprietor told him the story of Jim Smiley and his jumping frog, Daniel Webster.

As the legend goes, Smiley bet a stranger that his frog could out-jump any frog in Calaveras County. Unbeknownst to Mr. Smiley, the stranger loaded Daniel Webster’s big mouth with lead buckshot, making it impossible for the young frog to move, let alone jump. Indeed, Frog Webster lost and Smiley’s wallet was $40 lighter.

The frogs are still jumping in Calaveras County. About 40,000 people converge on Angels Camp each year for a re-enactment of this literary event. Two thousand frogs compete in the qualifying rounds, with the top 50 jumpers continuing on to vie for the grand prize during the final round Sunday afternoon.

Leaping hopefuls look to the grandest prize of all—to break the long-standing record of 21 feet, 5 inches, set by Rosie the Ribeter in 1986.

According to the rules, frogs must be at least four inches long from snout to rear and are best caught only a day or two before the event. They are given three consecutive jumps. The total ground covered by the frog in these successive leaps counts as the official distance.

The jockeys (frog handlers) are careful not to handle the frogs any more than they have to or they will no longer fear humans, a condition that lessens their desire to jump. Since frogs respond best to movement and surprise, many jockeys drop the frogs lightly instead of placing them on the ground after the warm water dunk.

After experiencing the web-footed activities taking place at “Frogtown, USA,” as Calaveras County is affectionately known, you can hop over to the town of Angels Camp, where the Calaveras Visitors Center provides walking-tour maps of the town’s historic places. Crooked Nose Hoe’s Saloon, the Waverly Stage Stop, and the Angels Hotel are just a few of the old haunts along Main Street still in existence. One also can visit the many gift and antique shops displaying various reminders of the past. Accommodations range from Victorian inns and bed and breakfasts to cabins dotted around the Sierra foothills.

This old gold rush boomtown has plenty of hometown hospitality. Residents cheerfully advise would-be frog jockeys, crouching at the edge of Angel’s or Cherokee Creek, on the finer points of catching a wild bullfrog. And they’ll be there to cheer you and your frog on to glory during the Jumping Jubilee. After all, somebody has to push Rosie the Ribeter off the pages of frog-leaping’s record books.

Susan Babbington is a freelance writer from Henderson, Nev.

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