Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(11)

Dodd, C. K. Jr. 2025. A Note on Carolina Frog Farms, Columbus County, North Carolina, USA. Bibliotheca Herpetologica 19(11):128–131.

In the mid-1950s, Douglas Reynolds of Baltimore, Maryland, had the idea of developing a frog farm industry at his family’s farm in Old Dock, Columbus County, North Carolina. Reynolds was in the U.S. Navy in World War II where he was an electrician, an occupation he followed in Baltimore. He was seriously injured in an electrical accident that hospitalized him for nearly a year. While recovering, he became friends with a physician named Leonard McGlothlin who convinced him to look into frog farming as a way to supply American demands for frog’s legs. McGlothlin traveled with Reynolds to the Reynolds’ family farm and after seeing the farm, suggested that frog farming might be suitable in eastern North Carolina. To Reynolds, it seemed like a way to supplement the farm income.

After several years, Reynolds was able to dig his first one-acre pond. He imported his first bullfrogs from New Orleans. Combined with bullfrogs from Arkansas, he claimed to have developed a new breed of bullfrog, the “Giant Food Frog.” His father, Henry Earl Reynolds, and two assistants ran the farm, named Carolina Frog Farms, which he supervised by flying back and forth from Baltimore to North Carolina in his private plane. No information could be found on the fate of the Carolina Frog Farms, how long it operated, or how successful or unsuccessful it was. Douglas Reynolds never returned to live in Old Dock, and his father died in December 1960 perhaps ending the younger Douglas’ incentive to continue the enterprise.

In connection with the establishment of Carolina Frog Farms, Reynolds, in collaboration with others, published a book on frog farming in 1957 titled The Breeding of Giant Food Frogs. In terms of frog-farming publications, The Breeding of Giant Food Frogs is certainly one of the most professionally produced books. Today, however, both the book and Carolina Frog Farms are little-known and nearly lost to memory. The only apparent historic evidence of the farm’s existence is this small book on how to construct a frog farm and raise bullfrogs and some period newspaper articles. The image below is from p.77 and shows Douglas Reynolds’ sister Edna (Peggy) Worrell holding American Bullfrogs at Carolina Frog Farms.