Lake Shawnee Amusement Park, West Virginia It has been decades since the Lake Shawnee Amusement Park buzzed with the laughter of children. But according to local legend, the park is still a playground for ghosts. The southern West Virginia park was abandoned in 1966, after the accidental deaths of two of its young patrons. But it seems Lake Shawnee’s haunted history reaches much farther back. Mercer County was home to a Native American tribe until 1783, when a European family’s attempt to settle the land sparked a violent turf war. The patriarch of the family was a farmer named Mitchell Clay, according to the Wyoming County Report. While he was out hunting, a band of Native Americans reportedly killed his youngest son, Bartley Clay. A daughter, Tabitha, was knifed to death in the struggle. Eldest son Ezekial was kidnapped and burned at the stake. Mitchell Clay enlisted the help of other white settlers to seek vengeance for his family. After burying his children, he murdered several of the Native Americans. Centuries later, in the 1920s, a businessman named Conley T. Snidow purchased the site of the Clay farm and developed it into an amusement park. He built a swing set, a ferris wheel, and opened up the pond for swimming. But death still hung over that cursed parcel of land. A little girl in a pink ruffled dress met her end after climbing into the circling swing set. She was killed after a truck backed into the path of the swing. Another little one, this time a boy, drowned in the amusement park’s swimming pond. According to Visit West Virginia, the park’s rides were responsible for a total of six deaths. The park eventually shut down, but its structures were left to rot and rust.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 17:59:27 +0000
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