LAKE SHAWNEE, WEST VIRGINIA, US
Located in what’s now known as Mercer County, the abandoned Lake Shawnee Amusement park has a long and sordid past. It was built in 1926 on the site of a Native American burial ground in Princeton, West Virginia.
Stories of spooky happenings make this a destinations for paranormal hunters looking to find evidence of the afterlife and those who want a good scare in their world.
It is said that there are 3,000 bodies of Native American Shawnee people buried on these lands that the amusement parks sits on. At least one of these skeletons were found by archeologists.
Many visitors have reported all kinds of paranormal activity at this place. What adds to the spookiness is the old abandoned park with an old swing carousel and ferris wheel.
Trees have grown around the equipment and the metal is rusted out with the wood elements being eaten away, gives it a scary look.
Contents
Here’s part of the story.
Around the 18th century, settlers were moving all over North America and in West Virginia the Clay family moved to the area and the patriarch name was Mitchell Clay.
While Clay was out hunting in 1783 and during the time he was out, a band of Shawnee Indians killed his two kids, Tabitha and Bartley Clay.
The Eldest song Ezekial was taken as a prisoner by the Shawnee and later burned at the stake.
In the 18th century, the area’s first European settlers arrived, the Clay family. The patriarch of the family was a farmer named Mitchell Clay.
Clay found his children dead and had to bury them. He rallied a group of settlers and in bloody retaliation set out for revenge and killed several Shawnee people.
The Cursed Lands
Centuries had passed and in the 1920s, a business man came around and went by the name Conley T. Snidow. He purchased the site of the Clay Massacre with the vision to create an amusement park.
He built a ferris wheel, swing set, and created a pond for swimming.
Little did he know that from all the deaths that happened on the land that it was cursed.
Many children that visited the amusement park ended up dying while they were there. A little girl died on the swings while a man backed up his Coca-Cola truck and ran into her.
A boy was dropped off at the amusement park and when the mother came back to pick him up, he was simply vanished.
Later the would find the body of the young boy in one of the man made lakes at the amusement park.
There have been many accounts of apparitions and figures being seen at the park. Swings would move on their own accord and creepy growl sounds heard while visiting the park.
After the two deaths at the amusement park, the owners decided to shut down the park. The equipment has been decaying into ruin ever since. Now word is that the place is a playground for the dead.
Paranormal Activity
Experts in the paranormal field who have visited the site claim to have heard the laughter of children and witnessed swings moving by themselves.
Archaeologist in the area tell that this area was home to the Shawnee people before the arrival of europeans.
In 1988, an archaeological dig was conducted and quickly found 13 bodies which were mostly children. They believe in the whole area there could be as many as 3,000 bodies of Native Americans buried throughout the property.
The Park is now closed but if you’re lucky, the owners will let you come explore and take picture. Also each year there is a carnival held at the property called the – “Dark Carnival” that happens in October so you can go scare yourself.
News Clippings of the Clay Massacre
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