Standing at the east entrance to the James H. McBride Arboretum, two silent sentinels gaze in the direction of the morning sun. Symbols of courage, strength and wisdom, the lions were carved by hand from Berea Limestone over a two year period. Finished in 1894, the lions are the work of John A. Kramer, a German-born immigrant sculptor and stone mason who lived and worked in nearby Sandusky, Ohio.
Much like their creator, the lion sculptures also travelled a good deal before finally finding their home in The Firelands. For several years they stood as landmarks in the yard of the Kramer family home. During the 1930’s the lions were purchased by Sidney Frohman, and placed in the park of his boathouse just west of the Sandusky Yacht Club. They remained there until 1953, when the smaller, crouching lion mysteriously disappeared.
The police were alerted, the surrounding waterways dredged, and the area canvassed, but the half-ton sculpture had vanished without a trace - until nearly two years later. As it happened, a former President of Bowling Green State University and Sandusky native, Dr. Frank J. Prout - who knew the Frohman family and had heard of the missing sculpture - was then serving as the acting President of Ohio Wesleyan University. And it was there that he recognized - under a coat of paint in front of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house - the missing lion statue. He immediately ordered that the lion be returned. In the dead of night, carrying a letter from Dr. Prout to explain themselves to the local police should they be discovered, two trucks full of young men from the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity returned the statue.
In 1966 the Frohman Foundation gave the lions to the family of the late Dr. Dean Sheldon, with the condition that - should the family relinquish ownership of Sheldon’s Folly (now Sheldon Marsh State Nature Preserve) - the Lions be offered to Firelands College. In a letter marking the safe arrival and placement of the lions, Dr. James McBride noted that the lions now gaze across the courtyard at Foundation Hall where - during the very first social event ever held at the College on Sept. 18, 1968 - Charles Frohman relayed the story of The Firelands to some of the very first students to attend the College.