Lake Shawnee Amusement Park

An abandoned 1926 amusement park built on a Native American burial ground containing an estimated 3,000 bodies, on land where three Clay children were killed and scalped in 1783. At least two more children died on the rides during the park's operation. The rusted Ferris wheel and swing set (marked with a red ribbon) remain standing, and visitors report seeing a girl in a dress near the ruins and figures riding the idle Ferris wheel.

Archaeologists from Marshall University found approximately 3,000 bodies beneath Lake Shawnee Amusement Park. The amusement park was built on top of a Native American burial ground. The burial ground was on land where three children were killed in 1783. Two of those children died at an amusement park where at least two more children would die in the 20th century. Every layer of this property involves dead children.

The land belonged to Mitchell Clay, one of Mercer County's first English settlers, who brought his wife Phoebe and their children to the area in the late 1700s. In 1783, members of the Shawnee tribe attacked the Clay homestead. They killed Bartley and Tabitha Clay (aged 16 and 18), scalping both. A third child, Ezekiel (also 16), was captured and taken to Chillicothe, Ohio, where he was burned at the stake. The three Clay children were buried on the property. A memorial monument still marks the site.

In 1926, a man named Conley Trigg Snidow, Sr. purchased the land and built an amusement park. It had a Ferris wheel, a swing ride, a swimming pool, a dance hall, a race track, overnight cabins, and concessions. Coal mining families from across Mercer County came for summer recreation. For forty years, children played on the same ground where the Clay children had been killed and where thousands of Shawnee dead rested underneath.

The park claimed more lives. A young girl died on the swing ride when a delivery truck backed into her seat. A boy drowned in the swimming pool after his arm became trapped in a drain pipe. (Sources disagree on exact dates, placing these deaths between the late 1920s and the 1960s.) The park failed a health inspection and closed in 1967.

Gaylord White, a former park employee, purchased the land in 1985 and tried to reopen it. He managed a brief run during the summer of 1987, but rising insurance costs shut him down again by 1988. While excavating the property for a mud-bogging track, White and a team from Marshall University discovered what was underneath. Thirteen Native American skeletons were documented during the formal excavation, mostly elderly people and young children, along with bracelets, clothing, and tools. The estimated total burial count across the property reached approximately 3,000.

The rides are still there. The Ferris wheel stands rusted in place. The swing set where the girl died is marked with a red ribbon. An owl ornament attached to the swing moves without wind, according to visitors. A pinwheel near the lake where the boy drowned spins on its own during calm conditions. People report seeing a little girl in a dress near the ruins. Other visitors describe figures that appear to be riding the Ferris wheel, visible only briefly before they're gone.

The park now operates exclusively as a paranormal tourism site, offering guided tours during Halloween season. The abandoned rides, overgrown paths, and general atmosphere of decay make it one of the most photographed abandoned places in the eastern United States.

Lake Shawnee is the rare location where the ghost story writes itself. An ancient burial ground, a frontier massacre, children killed on amusement rides built on top of all of it, and then the archaeological confirmation that thousands of dead were there the whole time. The property seems to punish anyone who tries to use it for anything. Snidow built a park and children died. White tried to reopen it and couldn't keep it running for more than a year. The only business model that works here is the one that acknowledges what the land is: a place where people died, over and over, across centuries.