Lake Shawnee Amusement Park

Lake Shawnee Amusement Park was a small, family owned park that was located in Mercer County, WV. Despite being closed in the 1960's, it remains frozen in time, unable to shake its dark reputation.

Image: Visit Mercer County

Before discussing the park though, it is important to discuss the history of the land.

The history of this place plays out almost like a Stephen King novel. In 1783, the area was the sight of a bloody turf war with American Indians after a European father attempted to settle the land. The Natives killed three of his children, leading him to murder several Native Americans.

Historical Marker on the Land. Image: Lost Amusement Parks

Once the fighting stopped however, the next hundred plus years would be relatively quiet for the area, and in the 1920’s, businessman Conley T. Snidow purchased the farm and developed the area into an amusement park. A swing set, swimming pond and Ferris wheel were the first attractions.

Nothing unsettling here. (NY Daily News)

Unfortunately, death came swiftly at this amusement park. A little girl was killed on the swing sets after a truck backed into them, followed by a boy drowning in the swimming pond. At least four others would meet their untimely fate at the park. After which, the owners had had enough and it was shut down and sold in 1966.

Today, it is completely rusted over, but many of the rides are still there. The park is frequently shown on paranormal investigation shows and has a reputation as being haunted.

Image: Register-Herald

Recently, the new owners have opened the park up to ghost tours the week before Halloween in 2018, but otherwise the park sits as a stark relic of bloody history. For obvious reasons, the site is a favorite of paranormal investigators and urban explorers to this day, as the rides still remain in place decades after they've been used.

Thanks as always for reading!


Location: 470 Matoaka Rd, Rock, WV 24747, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Choum Tunnel: The Monument to European Stupidity in Africa

Image
Scars of European colonization are located all across Africa, although some are more obscure and strange than others. With that in mind we come to the Choum Tunnel , built in Mauritania when it was controlled by the French. At first glance, it seems like an ordinary railway tunnel, however, one look at the local geography and you'll find yourself asking what its builders were possibly thinking with creating the project. Choum Tunnel in Mauritania. Unknown photographer. The Mauritania Railway was being built in the early 1960s, and was planned to connect Nouadhibou to Zouérat to exploit the iron ore reserves at Zouérat. That route still exists today in largely its original state, with the exception of the tunnel. Image: Ammar Hassan via Atlas Obscura The easiest route required running a short section of track through the then-Spanish controlled Western Sahara , but rather than pay Spain for the land and other concessions, the French engineers instead chose to tunnel under a hill sp
Read more

Railroad Vocabulary: A List of Words and Phrases Used in the Industry - Updated February 2024

Image
As somebody who enjoyed watching trains, but was not an employee of the railroad industry ( at least growing up ), when I would interact with railfans and historians, there was often a lot of technical jargon that applied only to the railroad industry thrown back and forth that made it difficult for a newcomer to understand what they were talking about. For example, what is a dinky? It's actually a passenger train. This non-inclusive language seems to keep the loop closed to members of the community, and to uncouple (no pun intended) that technical jargon and help make it easier for people to communicate with people in the industry, I am creating a list of railroad vocabulary that I'm hoping will make the industry more transparent.  BNSF 2361 . Image: Matt Flores While I ultimately believe that such technical jargon has no place outside of perhaps technical communications between employees, I know quite well that I alone am not going to stop people from communicating in a non-i
Read more

11 Of The Most Amazing Abandoned Railroad Bridges Still Standing Today - Updated February 2023

Image
With the hundreds of thousands of miles of abandoned railroad corridors in the world, it's no surprise that some of the most amazing infrastructure humanity has ever built was eventually abandoned, or re-purposed. And indeed, many bridges, trestles and viaducts have been lost to history, such as the Brushy Creek Viaduct in Alabama. But there are also many which still stand today which serve as reminders of bygone days, the folly of man, or the power of Mother Nature, or some combination thereof. Here are 11 such bridges. 11) Goat Canyon Trestle, Jacumba Hot Springs, CA (32.729167, -116.183333) Image: CoachellaValley.com Goat Canyon Trestle is the largest standing (for now) wooden trestle in the United States, and in spots is 200 feet off the ground, and 750 feet long. Built in the 1930's, it's actually a lot younger than it looks, since by the 1930's, steel had all but replaced wood as the preferred construction material for bridges. It was made out of woo
Read more