Lake Shawnee Amusement Park

And then there are the sudden stops with no economics attached.

Lake Shawnee Amusement Park closed after two separate child deaths.

You don't come back from that.

You don't, which brings me to accountability.

He was looking for a very specific piece of machinery.

See, Gaylord had recently purchased a massive overgrown piece of property back in Mercer County, West Virginia, called Lake Shawnee.

Decades earlier, the land had been a thriving local amusement park, and Gaylord had actually worked there during its golden years.

Now, he wanted to buy the land, clear the brush, and resurrect the park.

Now, to anyone else, finding the original might sound like a stroke of incredible luck.

A charming coincidence.

But if you know the history of Lake Shawnee, it feels more like a threat.

Because that swing ride wasn't just a piece of carnival nostalgia.

I'm always up good for a good cryptid story, and, um, I think it was two years ago now I did that, um, episode that talks about those places.

But if I had to ch- pick a new stop to visit, it's probably gonna be the Lake Shawnee abandoned amusement park.

[laughs] I don't know why I have a soft spot for these abandoned amusement parks, and it's not gonna be the last one you hear about today.

Um, Lake Shawnee opened in the 1920s, but the land has, um, much longer and much darker history.

So over the years, um, tragic accidents have happened at the park, combined with stories tied to the property itself, not just the park.

Um, it's one of West Virginia's most talked about paranormal destinations.

Uh-huh.

Then there is Lake Shawnee.

Yeah.

What makes this place different isn't just the rusted Ferris wheel, the abandoned rides, or the stories of ghosts.

So three kids.

Clay and other settlers retaliated, unaliving members of the Indigenous group involved.

Investigators looking into the later history of Lake Shawnee point to that violence as the beginning of a disturbing pattern surrounding the property.

More than a century later, in 1926, businessman Connie T. S- um, Snido opened an amusement park on the land.