While Steve uncovers Native American attacks and multiple drownings, Amy uncovers a vengeful group of dead that will stop at nothing to get its land back. High 69F. But it soon became known for being doomed after a number of freak accidents. Mitchell marked the grave, and a headstone was erected in 1937. In 1966, the attraction was abandoned. While excavating the track, they made discoveries that would uncover some of the darker secrets of Lake Shawnees past. A historical marker on the road leading to the park commemorates their memories. Until 1783. That . The special was subsequently broken down into an episodic series. The park was built upon the site of a desecrated Native American burial ground, and was the location of a brutal massacre of settlers. Could the negativity from the past have caused the tragic accidents that occurred at the park? While none of these seemed compelling enough for me to share here, I think its worth digging around a bit more if youre interested in this case.Thats it for Lake Shawnee Abandoned Amusement Park. It may have been that reputation that caused the attraction to close, or simply the fact that less and less coal miners lived in the area in the second half of the 20th century, as coal mines closed and laid off workers. The White family estimates they saw tens of thousands of guests during the three years it was open again, and during 4th of July weekend in 1987, the estimate they saw over 10,000 people, with bands playing 24 hours a day on the stage. Broken Swing of Innocence (10512076736).jpg 981 751; 412 KB A rusted ferris wheel in the abandoned Lake Shawnee Amusement park in West Virginia. Lake Shawnee operated as an amusement park in Mercer County, West Virginia from 1925 to 1966. Lake Shawnee Amusement Park in West Virginia, the site of a desecrated Indian Burial Ground turned into a settler farm which saw three settler children killed by Indians and several Indians killed by settlers in retaliation, turned into an amusement park in the 1920s. Do you believe that the spirits of the little girl and the boys who drowned here still haunt the park? Snidow, a budding entrepreneur, purchased the land and began development on the amusement park. Lake Shawnee Amusement Park: Princeton, W.V. Originally opened in 1960, the theme park contained replicas of famous biblical scenes, including the Last Supper, Garden of Eden, and an inn featuring a no vacancy sign. Just four miles south of Myrtle Beach, Magic Harbor Amusement Park had all the makings of a fun attraction a roller coaster, bumper cars, Tilt-a-Whirl, arcade, hedge maze, Ferris wheel, and other all-ages rides, but it never really succeeded. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. One hundred forty-three years after Mitchell Clay and his surviving family members fled the land, it was purchased by a man named Conley Snidow, Sr. As reported by Road Unraveled, the region had become a popular destination for coal miners and their families, who spent their summers vacationing along the banks of Lake Shawnee. Each episode featured the legends and stories of several reportedly haunted locations throughout America.. In October 2018, a five-episode special series . The park closed because of the deaths, he said. Bug Dust reports one of the more popular theories is that two of Clay's children were scalped and ultimately killed by 11 members of the Shawnee tribe while they were working on a fence. Right next to the park is Aokigahara Forest, better known as suicide forest, which is considered the second most popular suicide location after the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Rarely is a fun park site so dominated by death and violence. Frank had suffered a head injury shortly before Maggie was born, making him incredibly mentally unstable. Image: Visit Mercer County Before discussing the park though, it is important to discuss the history of the land. White wont speak of any personal creepy Lake Shawnee experiences. Her ghost has been spotted on site recently, A child's toy has been left on the rusted swing set, which is now almost 100 years old, A rusted tractor sits idly on the site of the abandoned Lake Shawnee Amusement park in West Virginia, This sign, erected on the site 30 years ago, gives an indication of what happened on the site in 1783, when white settlers moved into the area and clashed with the indigenous Shawnee tribe, The entrance to the abandoned Lake Shawnee Amusement park in West Virginia. Lake Shawnee Amusement Park was once a destination that drew folks from all over the states east of the Mississippi. It was once gaily painted, When the ferris wheel was erected in the 1920s it would have been hugely excited for local children, who had probably never seen one before, This is the rusted swing set where the little girl in her pink dress met her death. Then, more deaths followed. With how superstitious the Asian culture can be at times, it is no surprise the story of Kejonuma Leisure Land is mentioned in every article about the park, but it did not stop nearly 200,000 people visiting the site each year while it was open, leaving many to question the validity of the curse. But in the 1980s, Whites family his now deceased father Gaylord had worked at the park in his youth decided to try its hand at reopening the park. This week we are getting spooky with it. Though he initially helped with the search to find Chloe, Cruz confessed to her death and led police to her body. In April 1774, American Family History reports Mitchell Clay, who was a veteran of the French and Indian War, applied for and was granted an 800-acre tract of land along Lake Shawnee in what would become Mercer County in the state of West Virginia. Clay and a posse tracked the group to Ohio, but his son was burned at the stake. The Ferris wheel still stands today, unfinished and towering over the scene of destruction and the bumper cars are the strongest area of radiation in the park due to the overgrown vegetation. He paints a picture of a busy, popular Lake Shawnee in the 40s, 50s and 60s, however. It is very tiny with 1 small old swing ride and 1 small Ferris wheel and basically playground equipment. Every night, the woman could hear her serpent-baby cry, driving her mad, and she eventually committed suicide by drowning herself in the lake. [5] Since its closure, the park has hosted guided paranormal tours. According to The Register Herald, a team from Marshall University conducted a dig at the site and determined as many as 3,000 Native Americans were buried at the site - a majority of whom were confirmed to be children. Morbid. The park attracted numerous people, but rare accidents claimed the lives of at least three children. Do you think that the Clay children could possibly be haunting the area as well? (The information on the history of this park and what it was like in its glory days are vastly different from source to source. Although all of the rides had been sold, some of the original structures remained on the property and White hoped his new park would be even better than the original. Discover Lake Shawnee Amusement Park in Rock, West Virginia: This abandoned amusement park was built on a site with a dark history. Sayles would plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter and given five to twenty years in prison, with the eligibility of parole in eight years.[5]. 37.405510, -81.143945. He wasnt scared, but the only thing he could think of was, Well, if you like this tractor so much, Im going to give it to you. So he got off of it and left it sitting there. In 2021, Jack Osborne visited the location for his show Portals to Hell. His usual co-host, Katrina Weidman, was unable to attend, so he brought along another investigator, Heather Taddy. The remaining rides and attractions, which are in clear disrepair, only add to the spooky ambiance. [2], In 1985, Gaylord White, a former employee who had worked at the park, purchased the land with plans to reopen it,[5] and briefly reopened it in the summer of 1987. 2019 The Slate Group LLC. Your donations will help us continue to provide you with new episodes and content every week. He does, however, say his father had an encounter with the little girl who lost her life on the swings 49 years ago. In the mid-to-late 1990s, Gaylord, his wife Jewell and their son Gay, who passed away in 2013, began offering campfire stories and tours of Lake Shawnee during Halloween week. In the field where the bones and artifacts were excavated, bodies still resting just under the surface, people leave offerings for the Shawnee tribe, such as tobacco and Native American crafts. Steve and Amy investigate an abandoned amusement park in Lake Shawnee, WV. It will also help to fund the purchase of ghost hunting equipment so we can bring you stories of our own paranormal investigations in the future. Many amusement parks come and go, but the tale of Lake Shawnee Amusement Park runs a bit deeperand a bit darker. We found arrowheads, pottery and pots. The land on which the amusement park was built was the site of a massacre after landowner Mitchell Clay's children were targeted by Native Americans. Violent deaths. In 1966, Lake Shawnee Amusement Park was abandoned. To start, the park was built over a Native American burial ground, with an archeological dig uncovering thirteen bodies, mostly children.[1]. In the 1990s, they started offering tours and campfire story time during the Halloween season. Lake Shawnee Amusement Park in West Virginia has been eerily abandoned for decades. It was determined Loftis shot Koch over a wage and workmans compensation dispute after Loftis, a carpenter for the park, was injured on the job. Lake Shawnee is said to be haunted by. West Virginia Antiquities Commission, Oct. 1976, "Abandoned West Virginia amusement park has a bloody history", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lake_Shawnee_Amusement_Park&oldid=1137531029, Defunct amusement parks in the United States, Reportedly haunted locations in West Virginia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 5 February 2023, at 03:16. She was in a ruffled dress and she just appeared. Their decomposing remains would be discovered feet from each other, in shallow graves, nearly two months later by state police. Visit Atlas Obscura for more on Lake Shawnee Amusement Park. Frank was found not guilty of his daughters murder due to reason of insanity. Lake Shawnee is located along U.S. Route 19, 3.5 miles northwest of Princeton. Lake Shawnee is one of the most infamous abandoned places in all of West Virginia. They found bracelets, pottery, tools, and clothingthey also began to uncover bones and remains, unearthing 13 human skeletons; most of which were children. In 1926, an entrepreneur named C.T. The only thing they can figure out happened was they got some kind of flu or something and to protect the rest of their tribe, everyone except for the kids and the elderly left. Years later, an amusement park was built on the site . The park saw more than 50,000 visitors each year while it was open until owner John Baptist Greco closed the park in 1984 in order to expand it. Although they were unable to disturb the burial site, the White family retained possession of the property. Tickets can be purchased online or at the gate. Unfortunately, high insurance prices caused the park to close again in 1988. The rusted and overgrown rides of Lake Shawnee Amusement Park serve as a reminder of the failed West Virginia attraction, but its eerie past lives on in folklore for the area. If you want to watch the episode on Discovery+, which I highly recommend, it is S2E17. Lake Shawnee Amusem. Send it to [email protected]. Considering it cursed, most locals steer clear of the dangerous . On the 4th of July weekend in 1987, the Whites had bands playing 24 hours a day, and with an admission of just $1, he said he thinks they saw close to 10,000 people. The original swing ride, which still remains, is often where the spirit of the unnamed little girl is seen, and other eerie activity there has been attributed to her. Lake Shawnee Amusement Park was first built nearly 100 years ago in 1926. He says that he's even seen a little girl covered in blood. Swing set at the Lake Shawnee Amusement Park. The park reopened in 1985, and Gaylord saw his dream come to life. 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That is, until one young girl's death in 1966 saw the park shut down for good. The tribe took a third child, Ezekiel, hostage. First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. In total, 6 people died inside the amusement park. People still found a way in, though, and vandalism and trespassing occurred, destroying many of the parks statues and attractions. [5] A total of thirteen skeletons were uncovered, mostly of young children. Paranormal groups and ghost hunters began contacting the Whites for permission to visit. After three years, though, skyrocketing insurance rates forced the closure of the amusement park and the Whites began holding fishing tournaments and other events to keep the property active. Returning to find two of his children dead, Mitchell rounded up his hunting posse and set out to track them down and rescue his other son. The Register-Herald reports the site has also been used as a filming location by ABC Family, the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and the Travel Channel. The road that leads to Lake Shawnee is easy to miss, and many drive by it on their first visit. (LogOut/ They had a cement swimming pond with a bath house in front of it and they rented wool bathing suits for 15 cents, White says, with a smile, adding the pond had two water slides and several diving boards. Low 53F. Enter your email address to follow Residual Whispers and receive notifications of new posts by email. [4] Maggies death is the only murder in the parks long history. But, some parks are shrouded in mystery and misfortune, causing fear and shivers instead. Your contribution is appreciated. 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