Lake Shawnee Amusement Park Investigation

Lake Shawnee Amusement Park is over 99 acres of land according to the deed and was once occupied by the Shawnee Indian Tribe. It was the site of a vicious Indian attack on the Mitchell Clay family in August of 1783. Two of his children, Bartley and Tabitha, were killed in a field next to the original homestead. Ezekiel was kidnapped and later killed. A gravestone later erected on August 14, 1937 surprisingly does not list Ezekiel who was also buried there. Mitchell and Phoebe Clay and was the first white settler in Mercer County.

The amusement park first opened in 1926 by Conley T. Snidow and operated for 40 years before closing in 1966. There were swings, Ferris wheel, swimming pool, a dance hall, a water slide and concessions. In the early 1950s a young girl on the swing ride when a truck delivering sodas backed into the ride, killing her. A boy also drowned in the lake as well.

In 1966 Wayne Harman, his mother, two brothers and his two sisters were swimming in the pool full of bathers and with lifeguards on duty when a freak accident occurred. His arm had gotten stuck in a drain pipe and he was unable to free himself and drowned. The swimming pool was filled in to prevent further deaths and the park closed not soon after that.

The White Family ran the place from 1985 to 1988 then shut down completely. Fishing tournaments were run in a way to get much money to maintain the property and even its annual haunted bus attraction where the proceeds were donated to the Children’s Miracle Network and Make A Wish Foundation. Several television shows visited this location including the National Geographic, Ghost Lab, Dead Files, History Channel, Travel Channel and Strange World.

In 1988 the remains of 13 Native American Indians were found and later documented by archeologists. Chris seems to believe that there may be 3,000 Indians buried here. Most of them were children and most of the ghosts encountered are also children.

Address: 470 Matoaka Road, Rock, West Virginia 24747

Phone: 304-921-1580

Owner: Charlotte White and son, Chris White

Hauntings: The home of owner Charlotte White has been plagued by various types of ghostly phenomena. Some psychics believe that a former Indian chief watches over the White so that she does not come to any harm.

Most of the ghosts on the property are that of children and is it no wonder due to all the child’s deaths on the property throughout the years. One of the swings wooden seats have been seen swinging by itself even though the others are not seen to move. In fact, without having heard the story before, I was drawn right up the correct! This was pointed out by Chris.

There is a blue ticket booth near where the old swimming pool was. A visitor walked inside the booth only to be violently thrown out! Another ticket booth between the Ferris wheel a person entering into to it, could not get out.

It is alleged that fires in the fire pit are constantly being put out even though a second ago they were blazing. Some believe that an Indian chief is responsible for dowsing the fires. Nearby is what Chris White calls the “Creepy Trail” and he refuses to walk down it. If one follows the trail to the end, one will find the gravestone marker of Bartley and Tabatha Clay; the two young children killed by Shawnee Indians in 1783. Photographs taken here in the past have revealed a strange mist thought to be Ezekiel.

During a visit from the National Geographic, one the old paddleboats moved across the water by itself with nobody aboard. There is an old grey school bus on the property that once belonged to Gaylord White’s brother. It was purchased from the Reston County. There have been pictures that show someone in the driver’s seat even after the park has closed and it seems to be the most active around 9:15pm and during a rain shower.

There is an old tractor, rusting away on the property that once belong to Gaylord White, Sr. He claimed on several occasions while cutting grass to have encountered the spirit of a little girl in a white dress riding along on the mower with him. Eventually this became too much for Gaylord, as he parked the small tractor, never to be used again! He had stated that he has often seen a little girl in a bloody dress on the property.

The Ghost Research Society investigated Lake Shawnee Amusement Park on June 2, 2019 and the team members included: Greg Kos, Mike Rosario, Charles Williams and Dale Kaczmarek, with help from Dean Thompson, Amanda Pilgreen, Timothy Schmuldt and Melissa Johnson from Ghost Head Soup, Bob Davies from Champaign Urbana Paranormal Society and Joann Wade

Equipment setup: While investigating the bus by the old haunted house attraction, I used the Phasma Box, Ovilus X, digital recorder, Sony Nightshot camcorder and Melmeter. Later while at the swings near the Ferris wheel I placed a REM Epod on the alleged haunted wooden seat and also deployed the red laser grid, Phasma Box, Ovilus X with DTD screen, digital recorder, and Sony Nightshot camcorder. There was a momentary blip of a stick figure on the wheel of the tractor.

Experiments performed: EVP, Ovilus X and Phasma Box sessions were conducted in the old school bus near the old haunted house attraction and by the large circular swing ride. Three short sessions were conducted with the X-Cam SLS device by the old tractor. In two sessions, the video stopped and during the first a brief stick figure was seen near the large back tire.

Personal experiences:

Greg Kos: The equipment I used there was my voice recorder, K-II, and Parascope 360. I took a lot of IR stills at the school bus, Swing ride, and Grandpas tractor and did not capture anything unusual on any of my equipment. Part of the issue was noise contamination from the road and barking dogs. This is a very large area and I think we could have done better if we had twice the people. I’m glad I experienced Lake Shawnee and enjoyed the Grandma and her son who runs it. Yes I would go back.

Mike Rosario: Introduction: There were some spine-tingling tales about this old, haunted park! Everything from accidental deaths, drownings, family massacres, Indian burial grounds, and murder surround these many cursed acres of land. The abandoned Lake Shawnee Amusement Park in Rock, West Virginia has it all. It’s definitely a site to be toured, explored, and investigated for those who are curious of its deep, dark and sordid secrets!

Equipment and Initial Investigation: Our investigation took off at approximately 4:30-5:30pm with a tour of the grounds on Sunday, June 1, 2019. Weather was quite nice out; warm and partly cloudy. I wasn’t sure if the weather was going to decline afterwards, so I brought my umbrella with me, and of course, plenty of insect repellant, just in case. Equipment used was my K-II meter, a Philips Digital Voice Recorder, a Sony Night Shot Handy-Cam DCR-TRV13 NTSC 560 Digital-8 20X Optical Zoom Video Camcorder, a Sony AVCHD HDR-XR160 Digital Handy-Cam, 198-IR Light Module, a Green Laser Grid tool, and a Police Security Elite Blackout 615 Lumen Hands-free Heavy-Duty Head Strap Flashlight.

At times, we were actually together as one whole group, so there really wasn’t any pairing into separate groups that night. I began filming what I could of the park with my Sony HD Camcorder during the daytime. Afterwards, I walked around doing some K-II sweeps near the famous Swing Sets and Ferris wheel. Unfortunately, I didn’t get much K-II activity all through the night at these locations, and even around the pond areas; usually only around 0.1-0.6mG. Our group consisted of Dale K., Chuck Williams, Bob Davies, Joann Wade, Melissa Johnson, Greg Kos, and Tim Schmuldt and Amanda Pilgreen. After dark, I set up my night shot camera at these locations, and we also did a few EVP sessions in and around the area of the Swing Sets and Ferris wheel as well. Since these were reported to be very active spots, (and since my ankle and bladder were acting up a bit) I, personally, pretty much stayed at these locations throughout the investigation that night. I even went a bit out into the field to set up a laser grid session to see if I could get any disturbances in the distance. Unfortunately, to no avail, however. Afterwards, we went back to the Command Center and enjoyed the rest of the evening learning further about the history and many ghost stories associated with the area told by one of the owners around an enjoyably-warm campfire. 'Twas a very cool, spooky night!

Investigation Wrap-Up: The investigation ended approximately around 1:30am-2:00am on Monday, June 3, 2019.

Evidence: Upon reviewing all of my evidence, it’s sad to note that nothing appeared out of the ordinary, image-wise, on my night-shot camcorder, nor was there any specific audio captured on any of my devices. I must note, however, that there was a lot of outside contamination, natural, animal, and man-made.

Conclusion/Overall: Regardless of the outcome, I thought it was a good investigation, and I really would love to come back again to investigate and do some more work in many other areas of the Park as well. Truly a wonder to enjoy and experience. There is just so much fascinating history in this one location alone. Definitely would love to come back soon! A very big thank you to the owners of the Park!

Dean Thompson: An abandoned Amusement park, ancient Indian burial grounds, a fishing lake, a site where a massacre had taken place, and graves of the early settlers, who needs an amusement park? This place was a paranormal playground! I walked around earlier in the evening and took advantage of the sunlight, I walked the paths, the haunted maze and had video recording for most of the walk. I did not capture anything on video, however on audio there were a few moments when the tone changed, but the natural elements seem to be the culprit.

I tended the fire, most of the night, and had brought firewood from my house. I offered the wood in a manner where our GHS member Mike Minard had spilt prior to passing away this year, wood that my brother had prior to passing away, and wood that I had split. I told Jewell about the offering and that Mike was the same age as Gaylord II when he passed (52).

I loved listening to Jewell tell her stories and in one of the clips below you will hear a very coincidental occurrence. Jewell was telling a story about how her son, Gaylord II's cell phone was calling Chris's cell phone, as soon as she said this, her phone started to ring.

It was great to be there with the group we had, I had a blast, and if asked to do it again, I would totally go back. I could totally see this place being my backyard.

Charles Williams: Hauntings- Children who died of settlers, Native American original inhabitants,

Doors slamming, apparition sightings, being touched, shadow people.

Equipment- Zoom Recorder, GoPro Camera, Melmeter.

Experiments- EVP, Ghost Box, Phasma Box, Facebook Live Sessions.

Extenuating Circumstances- Weather- with possible thunderstorms, I didn’t want to set up a lot of equipment since this was an outdoor venue. It turned out to be not much of an issue, but we were unsure. Illness- prior to going I battled diarrhea, vomiting on the night of St. Albans, and cramping this night. Timing- Hind sight is 20/20. Perhaps if we flip flopped investigation nights it would have afforded a little down time for rest, and I could have down loaded memory cards. I had run out of space on the GoPro, rendering the camera useless. Walkthrough- the Hosts like to talk, and were extensive. The rock talk when meeting could have been omitted since we weren’t hunting there. The land owner came down, which was fine, to share stories, but these were extensive and going off topic. Some of the group started investigating despite this, and made better use of the time. Noise- Part of the property was near a road with traffic, and a neighbor had a dog constantly barking.

Personal Experiences- None.

Initial Conclusions- Troubleshooting on our part to avoid some of these issues. Most of the stories I noticed about the hauntings were about 1 person or a small group, maybe better results could be had under these circumstances? Am still interested to see what evidence holds out. I was concerned about insects, but noticed no mosquitoes even though there were bodies of water and stagnant water.

Dale Kaczmarek: I felt that the entire place was a bit creepy to behold since this had been a dream of mine to investigate for a long time. The only thing that troubled me is that I only recorded two EVP sessions in this very large area. I did not wish to go off on my own, my own little pet peeve and lots of others were listening to ghost stories and looking at pictures. In my opinion, there could have been a better time for that since we were here to investigate and had come from a great distance. Perhaps that could be been done either before or after all investigating was concluded.

I would have loved to investigate the Creepy Trail, Mitchell homestead, swimming pool area, the gray school bus, haunted house attraction, old tractor and blue ticket booth where people have been violently extracted. I was able to investigate the school bus with Davies and Schmuldt and that session was incredible.

There was almost constant contamination from a very irritable dog in the distance. Due to this and who knows what else, the last session near the swings was a dismal failure.

Evidence collected:

Abe Lincoln Shawnee.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the school bus, a question was asked, “In your time, who was the president?” The device responded with what sounds like, “Abe Lincoln.”

Attention for announcement the lake abounds Shawnee. MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session by the swings, the device blurts out loudly, “Attention for announcement – the lake abounds.”

Big shot Shawnee.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session near the swings, the device blurted out, “Big shot.”

Boats Shawnee.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session near the swings, the device inserted the word, “Boats” as Williams was trying to complete the sentence, “They had “Boats” paddle boats, like here.

Gaylord Abe Shawnee.MP4 - while conducting a Phasma Box session in the old school bus, the device blurted out, "Gaylord" followed by "Abe."

Ghost Box Session Shawnee.MP4 – Amanda and Tim venture away from the group and perform a Ghost Box Session. There is some amazing hits here.

Hey Tim hello Shawnee.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the old school bus, the device says, “Hey Tim hello.” (Timothy Schmuldt was with us at the time of this session.)

Hi Bob Shawnee.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the old school bus, the device said, “Hi Bob!” (Bob Davies was with us at the time.)

Hi Tim Shawnee.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the old school bus, the device said, “Hi Tim!” (Tim Schmuldt was with us at this time.)

I love you hello Shawnee.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the old school bus, the device says, “I love you hello.”

It's me Shawnee.MP4 - while conducting a Phasma Box session in the old school bus, a question was asked, "Gaylord, are you here?" The device responds with, "It's me."

It’s too pretty Shawnee.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session near the swings, the device blurted out, “It’s too pretty.”

My tooth Shawnee.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session near the springs, the device screams in a childish voice, “My tooth!”

Phone rings Shawnee.MP4 – Jewell was telling a story about son’s phone ringing, but it was actually Gaylord calling him. At this moment her phone started to ring.

Second Shawnee.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the old school bus, a question was asked, “Were you Junior or the second?” (Referring to Gaylord Sr. or Jr.) The device responds with, “Second.”

Spirits Shawnee.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the old school bus, the device said, “Spirits.”

Upper tooth Shawnee.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session near the swings, a question was asked, “That’s funny when someone loses s tooth?” The device responded with, “Upper tooth.”

Walking along fence Shawnee.MP4 – Tim was walking along fence to join Bob and Dale and his camera caught this. Here is the "Enhanced version."

Yes it is Shawnee.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session near the swings, the device says what sounds like, “Aborigines.” Dale comments, “Aborigines? No, that’s not who lives out here.” The device responds with, “Yes it is.”

You found me will you please investigate Shawnee.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the old school bus, the device spews out a bunch of words and phrases, “You found me” Will you please?” “Investigate.”

Words spoken by the Ovilus X in dictionary mode: School bus: horse, comfort, excel and along; Phasma Box – “Ray”. Swings – though, word, wood and pillow; Phasma Box – “I’m okay.”

Conclusions: I am still kicking myself in the butt for not investigating more locations within this very active location. There was so much out here for the taking; a more thorough effort should have been employed to capture some additional evidence. I guess there’s always another day and time? If we do venture this way again, we would not have to have another tour of the location and wouldn’t have to look through pictures or hear stories not that they weren’t interesting, I think the timing was bad. The second visit could be so much more profitable in picking up evidence and having personal encounters.

I hope to be able to pass this way again; and not like Seals and Crofts wrote about.