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Due to the haunting nature of these haunted places, listener discretion is advised.

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I'm your host Mark, and tonight I have a ghost story for you.

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Let's go together around the campfire and try to not get scared.

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Have you heard about the people who disappeared at the Lake Shawnee amusement park?

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A group of YouTubers were looking for haunted places to explore for their channel.

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They came across Lake Shawnee amusement park, which has been abandoned since the early 90s.

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Jacob, Hannah, and Liam left Beckley around 8pm to make the 43 minute drive.

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When they arrived, they parked one mile away from the entrance of the park to save them from getting caught by passing cars.

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Hannah was the first to get out of the car, and she saw a light on the grounds of the park.

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She told Jacob and Liam about the light, and that she thought it was a security guard.

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They told her not to worry about it because they knew she was just seeing the moon reflect off of something.

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They decided to turn on their camera and start recording for the intro of their video.

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When they started to walk down the road, they started to hear horses.

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The sounds kept getting closer and closer, and all of a sudden, they just stopped.

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By the time they got to the gate, they wondered if this was actually a good idea.

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Hannah told them about the history of the park, and the only reason they started to second guess themselves was due to the fact the land was a Native American burial ground.

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Liam told them to grow up, and he jumped the gate. Hannah and Jacob followed behind.

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They got out their EMF meter, and right by the ticket booth, it went from green to red.

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They decided to start there, and started to try the SD's method. Hannah put the headphones on her head, and Jacob started to ask questions.

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The first one, is anyone here? A few seconds went by, and Hannah said, I am.

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Jacob asked who it was, and Hannah said, Ezekiel.

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And she threw off her headphones, saying she heard a low growl.

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All of a sudden, things started to fly off the shelves. Then Hannah was thrown out of the ticket box.

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Liam and Jacob ran over to her, not knowing what happened. Hannah brushed it off like it was nothing, and she wanted to continue.

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They decided to walk over to the swings to see if they could get any evidence.

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They set up their laser grid, and decided to use the EVP detector.

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They started to ask questions, and all of the responses were coming from children.

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They noticed that the swings started to move, and Liam started to get worried, because the wind wasn't blowing.

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Hannah asked the question, did you die here? A child's voice came back and said, yes.

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Jacob jumped when he felt hands on his back. Then he felt cold air on his neck.

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After that, their camera started to malfunction. It was a new camera with a fully charged battery.

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It died out of nowhere, and just cut off for a few minutes.

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They decided to walk back to what used to be a pool on the property.

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They shined a flashlight, and noticed that there was water.

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After a few minutes of standing near it, they heard what they thought was splashing, or like someone was drowning in it.

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Then, it just stopped out of nowhere, and the water disappeared.

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They started to hear the sound of horses again, and thought that it could possibly be someone on the property,

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checking to see if there was anyone trespassing.

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So they hid and went when the old bus was on the property.

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The bus started to shake, and the windows and doors busted open.

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Lights were seen all over the property, and they heard the chants of a Native American tribe.

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They ran out of the bus, trying to make it back to their car.

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When all of a sudden, the ferris wheel started to creak and move again.

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Then they heard kids running around them, and the sounds of an amusement park.

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The camera started up again, and everything suddenly stopped.

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The three of them decided to take a second to collect themselves.

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They were just sitting there in the silence, when all of a sudden, they heard someone scream from the other side of the park.

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They started to film again, to see who was screaming. When they got to the spot the screaming was coming from,

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they saw a mist, and the air started to get thicker.

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The mist started to form in a circle, around the three.

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And in the center, all they could hear was screams from different people.

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All of a sudden, it stopped.

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When they started to run back to their car, Jacob dropped the camera.

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He started to run back for it, and Hannah told him to forget it.

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Liam, Hannah, and Jacob jumped over the gate, running back to their car.

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However, the car wouldn't start.

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So they decided to run and try to find help.

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The next morning, the owner made his rounds looking at the property, and he saw the camera.

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He picked it up, and saw the videos that they recorded.

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He looked around and saw the car was still parked down the road.

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To this day, Liam, Hannah, and Jacob have never been seen again.

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The Lake Shawnee Amusement Park is no longer an amusement park.

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The property, just north of Princeton, at the junction of routes 10 and 19 in Mercer County, is now privately owned,

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but still has some relics of some of the old rides.

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Paranormal groups have investigated the property.

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Lake Shawnee gamed its fame. Lake Shawnee gained fame.

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When it was featured on shows, on the show, Scariest Places on Earth, Ghost Lab, and the most terrifying places in America,

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the history of Lake Shawnee is just as haunting as present day.

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The land was occupied by the Shawnee tribe who buried untold numbers of the dead.

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Then, in 1783, a massacre took place that seared the area into both history and haunted history.

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Mitchell Clay and his family were the first white settlers in what became Mercer County.

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They set up their farm in an 800 area called Clover Bottom.

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The year 1783 is known as the official date of the massacre, but 1781 and 1782 are also cited.

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There are different versions of how the attack happened.

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According to one, Mitchell Clay went hunting and assigned two of his sons, Bartley and Ezekiel, to fence wheat stacks.

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His wife, Phoebe, sent their daughter, Tabitha, and other children to the river to wash clothes while she stayed home tending to the younger children.

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A group of seven Shawnee decided to make their attack and shot Bartley dead as soon as the shot rang out.

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As soon as the shot rang out, Tabitha and the other girls ran for the house.

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Tabitha attempted to stop the Native Americans from scalping Bartley and engaged in a struggle with the knife welding Native American.

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She wrestled away the knife and threw it to the ground, but other Native Americans retreated it and cut her to pieces.

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The Native Americans scalped Bartley and Tabitha and took Ezekiel hostage.

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Meanwhile, a man named Lincoln Blakenship has stopped to visit the family and witness Tabitha struggle.

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Phoebe begged Blakenship to intervene and shoot the Native Americans to save Tabitha.

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He refused and departed, going to one of the settlements at New River to report the incident.

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The Native Americans left taking Ezekiel with them and returned to their own settlement in Chillicothe, Ohio.

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When Mitchell returned home from hunting, he found the bodies of two children in an empty home.

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He assumed that all of them had been killed or captured.

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So he left for the New River settlements where he secured help.

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First, a party of men assisted in burying the Clay children and then joined in the search for the Native Americans.

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The men caught up with them in what's now known as Boom County and engaged in a fight.

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Several Native Americans were killed, one begged for his life and broken English, but was shot to death by Charles Clay, one of Mitchell's older sons.

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After this, Mitchell Clay and others arrived at the Shawnee settlement in Chillicothe, but they were too late to save Ezekiel.

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He had been burned at the stake and the smoke was still rising from his hard body.

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Mitchell bargained with the chief to remove his son's body and was loaned a horse for the transport.

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He moved the bodies of Bartley and Tabitha to a hill behind the house and buried Ezekiel alongside them.

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He never returned the horse to the Shawnee.

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Later, they came in the night and took it back to the Shawnee settlement.

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Phoebe refused to return to Clover Bottom, so Mitchell relocated his family to Parisburg, Virginia.

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In 1962, an entrepreneur named C.T. Snydove bought the old clay land and built an amusement park on it.

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He was not aware of the site's bloody history.

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The park was popular with coal mining families and flourished for four decades.

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It featured a spring-fed swimming pool, carnival rides, a dance hall, a saloon, complete with prostitutes and illegal gambling, a racetrack, concession stands, and cabins for overnight stays.

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During prohibition, a speakeasy operated there.

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Most amusement parks suffered accidental deaths, and Lake Shawnee was no stranger to those.

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Two of the most infamous deaths include two children from the 1950s.

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A girl on the big circle swing was killed when a delivery truck backed up into the swing.

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A boy whose mother had left him at the park for the day drowned in the swimming pool.

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After that, the pool was soon filled with sand to prevent more accidental drownings.

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The park closed in 1966 and the property set abandoned until 1985 when it was purchased by Gaylord White,

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a businessman who worked at the park during the 1950s.

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White intended to subdivide the land and sell it to residents, but he shelved the idea after Native American artifacts and burial sites were discovered.

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White reopened Lake Shawnee as an amusement park, but it only lasted for three years.

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Since then, the property has been used for fishing, camping, and hunted attractions and guided hunted tours.

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Some of the hunted phenomena are attributed to the Native Americans who originally lived, died, and were buried on the land.

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People hear disembodied voices and what sounds like Native Americans chanting.

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At parishes, Native Americans have been seen throughout the old park grounds, especially around the concession stands.

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According to Gaylord White, six people have been said to die at the park.

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The ghost of a girl who died on the swings has been seen frequently, including by White's father, who often felt her presence.

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The girl told him she wanted the tractor he was riding, so he stopped it and got off.

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And to this day, it remains in the same spot and has never been moved.

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White has seen the girl dressed in a pink dress with ruffled sleeves. A woman who swam in the pool before it was filled with sand,

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claimed she almost drowned because of some mysterious force that was trying to pull her under.

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White, who lived on the property, experienced poltergeist phenomena such as doors opening and slamming shut,

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lights and the television turning on by themselves. A silhouette of a man was sometimes seen sitting in the old Ferris wheel.

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It's said that the man died falling off the Ferris wheel, but there is no evidence to back the story up.

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Today, you can visit WVlakeshawnit.com to get tickets to the Dark Carnival

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and to get tickets for a daytime and overnight haunted tour.

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Thank you so much for listening to the third episode during our State Haunts Month.

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Stay tuned for next week's episode.

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Don't forget to follow Mountain State Mysteries on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

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