The 8 Most Horrifying Amusement Park Deaths In History

The Cursed Lake Shawnee Amusement Park

Lake Shawnee/FacebookLake Shawnee’s deadly history has led many to believe the park is either haunted or cursed.

Legend maintains that Lake Shawnee Amusement Park was built on the land once owned by Mitchell Clay, the first white settler in Mercer County, West Virginia. In 1783, Shawnee Indigenous Americans killed two of his children and kidnapped a third then burned him at the stake.

As the legend says, the land was consequently cursed, only to bring misfortune to those who set foot on it.

It remained largely untouched until sometime in the 1920s, when it was purchased by businessman Conley T. Snidow, who decided to use the land to build an amusement park. According to The Register-Herald, the park remained open for about 40 years, despite six people dying there, including two boys who drowned; one in a pond and the other in the lake.

That is, until one young girl’s death in 1966 saw the park shut down for good.

Lake Shawnee Amusement Park didn’t have much in the way of rides, but the few it did have drew massive crowds — namely, the Ferris wheel and the swings. But when a little girl in a pink, ruffed dress sat on the swings, it would mark the end for both her and the park. While she sat, a truck delivering drinks backed into them as it attempted to turn around, crushing the girl.

Lake Shawnee’s history of death, it turns out, goes back further than originally thought as well. When Chris White bought the land in 1986, he discovered different Native American artifacts like pottery and arrowheads buried on the grounds.

A short while later, he invited a team from Marshall University to search the area — they wound up spending several years there.

“They stopped digging when they started finding kids’ graves,” White said. “The only thing they can figure out happened was they got some kind of flu or something, and to protect the rest of their tribe, everyone except for the kids and the elderly left.”

Naturally, many people believe the park is still haunted to this day and ask White about it often.

“What’s your definition of haunted?” he said. “I don’t have one, but there are strange things that happen here all the time.”

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