Heart Starts Pounding: Horrors, Hauntings, and Mysteries - 132. Abandoned Amusement Parks: Hauntings, Disasters, and more // DARK SUMMER VOL. 2

Episode Date: August 7, 2025

Go to https://kachava.com and use code HSP for 15% off on your subscription for a limited time! Head to https://www.tryfum.com/HEART and use promo code HEART to get your free gift with purchase and start the Good Habit today! Summer is the perfect time to visit an amusement park, but for every park that’s open and bustling during the warmer months, there’s one that’s fallen into disrepair and sits there abandoned.  But what causes this to happen? Well, sometimes a series of horrible accidents cause the public to lose faith in a park, and ticket sales plummet. Sometimes, a once in a generation disaster occurs and an entire city must evacuate, leaving the park inside empty. And other times, a park somehow winds up built on an ancient graveyard, and unexplained, supernatural events scare the public away.  Today, we’re talking about River Country, Pripyat Amusement Park, and Lake Shawnee Abandoned Amusement Park  TW: Child death Subscribe on Patreon for bonus content and to become a member of our Rogue Detecting Society. Patrons have access to bonus content as well as other perks. And members of our High Council on Patreon have access to our after-show called Footnotes, where I share my case file with our producer, Matt. Apple subscriptions are now live! Get access to ad-free episodes and bonus episodes when you subscribe on Apple Podcasts. Follow on Tik Tok and Instagram for a daily dose of horror. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Summer is the perfect time to visit an amusement park. But for every park that's open and bustling during the warmer months, there's one that's fallen into disrepair and sits there abandoned. But what causes this to happen? Well, sometimes a series of horrible accidents cause the public to lose faith in a park, and ticket sales plummet. Sometimes a once-in-a-generation disaster occurs and an entire city must evacuate, leaving the park empty inside.

And other times, a park somehow winds up built on an ancient graveyard and unexplained supernatural events scare the public away. This is Heart Starts Pounding, a podcast of horrors, hauntings, and mysteries. And today, we're going to sneak into a couple of abandoned amusement parks together and discuss the cursed history that led to their closures. Buckle up for this episode of Dark Summer and make sure to keep your hands and feet in the car the entire ride. But first, before we get to it, thank you to everyone who has purchased the new heart stars pounding merch. Please keep tagging me in your photos. I absolutely love seeing our little jinx out there in the wild. And also, there's so many nice messages that have come through with your purchases.

Like Rachel, who said, I love the show so much, a recent subscriber from the UK, and I can't wait to decorate my new laptop with the stickers. Thank you so much, Rachel. Kelsey said, I've listened to all your podcasts. My nine-year-old daughter even listens to a few and loves it. One of these t-shirts is for her. Thank you, Kelsey, and hello Kelsey's daughter. And also, hello to all of our young Rogue Detecting Society members. Allison wrote and she said she listens with her 10-year-old daughter, Amelia, who loves the spooky episodes.

It's so cool to me to have people listen with their family. I know my brother-in-law does the same with his teenage daughter, which I'm so grateful for. But seriously, thank you guys for all of your support. And remember, the dark summer tea will only be available for another few weeks. And then, just like the legraphon, it will be gone forever. make sure to grab one before it's too late. We will have other fun limited seasonal horror pieces in the future, but I personally really love our dark summer t-shirt. Patrons and Apple subscribers, you get 10% off everything in our store, and that's 20% off for the High

Council tier on Patreon. Check out shop.hurstarspounding.com to see what's still available. Okay, let me take you to our first abandoned park. It's when your heart starts pounding. For our first amusement park, we're heading down to the shores of Bay Lake in Florida, and we're going to jump over the barricades, keeping people out of the skeletal remains of a once thriving water park called River Country. Once inside of this park, you can hear the faint sound of music playing on an old, tattered speaker system. It's terrifying, but the music here was never turned off,

even though the lights were. The height of this theme park's abandonment was actually in 2019, when nearly two decades had passed since a single visitor had stepped foot in the water park with a ticket. Then, water and pools had turned a mossy shade of green, vacant water slides were overtaken by vines,

sitting atop rickety wooden support beams, and if you poked around long enough, you would find an old office still full of paperwork that looked like someone had just gotten up been left one day and never returned. But the strangest thing about this park is that if you were to stand at the very top of the highest crumbling water slide, you would see something that would make you do a double take. There in the very near distance is Cinderella's castle in the center of Disney World. Yes, this decaying collection of rides that we're standing in once was a part of Disney,

but a series of very unfortunate and preventable accidents led to a publicity crisis that ended in the park's demise. River Country initially opened on June 20, 1976, as a water park located within Disney's Fort Wilderness Camping Grounds, which is a part of Disney World's Magic Kingdom. At just $25 a ticket, River Country was specifically designed as a more affordable way for families who perhaps couldn't afford the resort hotels

to enjoy Disney's attractions. Locals frequently visited just for the day separate from the other Disney attractions. Now, River Country was relatively small compared to the rest of Disney World. It was only about six acres. It was basically crammed in between the campgrounds and Bay Lake. For reference, Epcot alone is around 300 acres and all of Disney World sits on about 27,000 acres. But for being such a small part of the Disney ecosystem, River Country was incredibly popular. It welcomed, at its peak, 4,700 guests a day and was home to some really beloved rides. It was described as a Huckleberry Finn old-fashioned swimming hole and

featured sandy beaches, lawn chairs, and daybeds. The park was supposed to look like it was part of nature, like families had accidentally stumbled upon a watery oasis, which was a very stark contrast from the heightened designed and world building of Disney World. There was a slippery slope plunge, which was these water slides that looked like they had been carved into a natural rock formation and emptied out into the upstream plunge, which was described as a, quote, clean water pool of bright blue water. The park also had pony rides, it had whitewater rapids, a kid zone, and hiking trails. It was really perfect for a family day out. But there was one thing about River Country that made it really unique and would also be the reason behind one of its biggest disasters.

And that was the filtration system used for all of these pools to keep the water clean. The main attraction at River Country was called Bay Cove. It was a massive pool that the water slides all fed into. To keep the water in Bay Cove, looking like natural fresh water from a lake rather than chlorine. needed water from a water park, River Country actually used water from the adjacent Bay Lake. The lake water first passed through a filtration system before it entered the park. And this system basically worked by keeping Bay Cove's water level slightly higher than that of Bay Lake, and that ensured that water could not flow backwards into the swimming area, maintaining sanitary conditions.

And so, despite the park's natural appearance, the water was filtered and it was treated. This allowed guests to safely swim in clean water that felt like a natural lake or river environment. But Disney didn't know the unintended consequences of having a filtration system like this. In August of 1980, an unnamed 11-year-old boy from Long Island, New York, visited river country while he was on vacation with his family. He spent the day splashing around, enjoying all that the park had to offer. But when the boy returned home to New York just a day later, he started feeling really ill. He developed a fever, he had chills, he had stomach aches, he started vomiting.

Eventually, his parents felt that he was just getting worse as time went on, so they brought him into the hospital. And what followed were tests, lots and lots of tests. It wasn't the flu, it wasn't a stomach bug. The hospital just couldn't figure it out, but he kept getting sicker and sicker. And so then he was transferred to another hospital in New York where he eventually did pass away from this mysterious illness. Doctors at that hospital believed that the boy had some sort of viral meningitis, maybe, brain inflammation, basically. And they performed a spinal tap to check on his spinal fluid.

And that's when they found something that made them stop in their tracks. He had contracted something that these doctors had never seen before. There had only been 29 documented cases of this illness ever, and it was caused by an amoeba found in warm freshwater lakes. The boy had contracted amoeic meningoencephalitis, an aggressive and incredibly rare brain infection caused by an amoeba called naglaria fowlery. It was thought that because the temperatures were warmer than usual that year, this amoeba flourished and malted. applied and it had somehow entered River Country's Bay Cove through the filtration system connecting it to Bay Lake. The amoeba most likely entered the boy's brain through his nose, causing rapid inflammation and severe destruction of brain tissue. In the immediate aftermath, two Florida

public health officials stepped forward to try and explain that this was just a natural risk and was most likely not caused by any fault in river country's filtration system. But that really didn't matter to parents. They became terrified of the water in the park, and ticket sales plummeted as a result. Now, this specific type of amoeba wasn't found in properly chlorinated pools, so parents figured they would just take their kids to proper water parks instead. And after this, Disney really needed to turn the image of River Country around. They needed to show people that,

it was safe and earned back the trust of the public. And unfortunately, that's when tragedy struck again. This episode is brought to you by Kachava. We've all had moments where we need to stay sharp. I just did a whole episode on people who narrowly escaped danger. And even if you're not trying to escape a serial killer or decide if a fake ride chair is attempting to lure you somewhere, there's other times where you have to stay sharp. I mean, I've spent the last year in between L.A. and Austin, and I feel like every trip on the freeways there requires laser focus. That's why I love Kachava's whole body meal shakes. They keep my body in mind nourish all day and ready for anything, even rush hour traffic. I've been having a kachava shake nearly every day. I love how creamy it

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because now I have something else to do with my hands. start your guilt-free journey with the good habit and use code heart to get a free gift with your purchase and begin your overdue breakup just head to tryfume dot com slash heart that's t r y f um com slash heart and use code heart to start the good habit today exactly two years after the 11-year-old boy's death a 14-year-old named howard was at river country on a trip with his church 50 teens had just come from a church convention in Miami and they were headed back to their home state of North Dakota when the leaders decided that they should stop at the water park

on their long drive back. That night, it's estimated that there were around 500 kids swimming in Bay Cove. Howard started climbing the steps of one of the 60-foot water slides that dumps out into the cove and it's believed that he didn't see a sign that read, quote, rapid water, strong swimmers only. And Howard was described by those who knew him as a pretty inexperienced swimmer.

There were 13 lifeguards on duty that night, and not one of them saw Howard come down the water slide and stop moving once he landed in the pool. He was bobbing in the water for five whole minutes before a lifeguard noticed and swam out to check on him. And by that point, he was dead. A spokesperson for Disney named Ron Madden said that he personally didn't feel like Disney did anything wrong in this situation. He felt like there was enough lifeguards watching Bay Cove, and there was no need to add more. But one thing that wasn't ever mentioned

in any of the articles or statements that I read, and I do personally really want to know more about this, is why did it take five minutes for a lifeguard to get to Howard? Now, there were two lifeguards assigned to the slide that he went down. There was one at the top and one at the bottom, and they were tasked with watching kids go down the slide safely and then resurface. I have to believe that the lifeguard at the bottom just wasn't paying attention. But I would love anyone who has been a lifeguard to weigh in on this because I'm legitimately confused as to how this happened. It did happen at night so maybe it was dark, but in that case, the spokesperson should have talked about adding more lights to the area. But again, they said that Disney had done nothing wrong. So after this second death

of a child within the park, nothing changed. Because once again, the park didn't admit any fault. And I know they say that tragedy strikes in threes, like it's some sort of cosmic curse that you can't outrun. But for River Country, when the third accident happened, it really felt like they had it coming. On June 13, 1989, seven years after the last tragedy, a swimmer in Bay Cove was walking through the pool

when they felt something under their feet. It was soft and fleshy, but the water was too deep and murky to see the bottom. Taking a big breath, the swimmer dove under the water where he felt the unmistakable outline of a body. Within moments, a 13-year-old boy named Christopher Staff was pulled out of the cove and onto dry land. No one could be certain how long he had been underwater for, but time was of the essence. A lifeguard ran over to Christopher and started immediately performing chest compressions on the boy. And people started gathering around to watch, including this one woman named Kim Higginbotham. Now, Kim was a 23-year-old scuba instructor.

She was CPR and first aid certified. She actually taught CPR at SeaWorld in Florida. And she was specifically trained for these types of emergencies in parks, which is why she ran over right away when she heard the whistle blow. But when she got over to the area where everyone had gathered, she noticed that the lifeguard that was performing CPR on Christopher was doing it incorrectly. Kim tried to intervene,

but the lifeguards wouldn't listen. For 15 minutes, the lifeguard continued to do improper CPR on the boy until emergency services arrived and took him to the hospital where he was later pronounced dead. Pretty quickly after this happened, another spokesperson for Disney came forward and said, I'm sure you guessed it, they were not at fault.

There was no evidence they said that improper CPR had occurred and they felt there was no reason to retrain any of the lifeguards in first aid. But Kim has always stuck to her story. She said that she witnessed incorrect life-saving procedures and she even went so far as to say that Christopher may have had a fighting chance at survival if CPR had been done correctly. It was later confirmed by a family friend that, Christopher's family did have a pool at their house, and he knew how to swim.

So no one could ever answer how he wound up at the bottom of the cove and how no lifeguard saw him slip out of view. He was on a class trip with seven other classmates from Pace private school, and that was a school that caters to children with learning disabilities. Three deaths and no accountability really damaged the park's reputation, and over the next decade, ticket sales started demand. Eventually, the park closed for winter maintenance in 2001, and Disney decided to just never reopen it. That's why it looked like everyone had just packed up their bags and left one day, paperwork still in drawers in the offices.

Disney didn't actually tell anyone that the park was closed for four years. There was never an official announcement until that time, so guests just kept arriving to see a sign hanging that read, River Country is closed and no explanation. And over the years, there have been lots and lots of break-ins to this park. So to deter urban explorers and vandals, Disney decided to keep the music on in the park. And so for decades emanating from the woods, the eerie sound of country western theme music can be heard playing in the distance. In 2019, River Country was officially demolished. And a new resort was supposed to be built, but that was also abandoned due to COVID and Disney just losing interest in the project.

Though it does seem like as of October 24, construction equipment was seen in the area. Now, according to the company, a Disney Vacation Club will be built on the grounds by 27. And hopefully, the pools at this resort will have chlorinated water. We're going to head to one of the most haunted abandoned amusement parks in the world. But first, I want to take a quick detour with you to the abandoned city of Pripyat, Ukraine, to a place where few have dared to venture. For this one, we're actually going deep inside

of the Chernobyl exclusion zone to check out the remnants of a small amusement park that was open for just one day and still lies abandoned. There, rusted bumper cars sit off their tracks and a ferris wheel sits above the trees in an otherwise post-apocalyptic hellscape. You see, on April 26, 1986,

this area was changed forever when a nuclear meltdown happened during a routine maintenance test and reactor four of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, which is located in present-day Ukraine near the Belarus border. There was an explosion that resulted in nuclear fallout estimated to be 400 times that

of the Hiroshima atomic bomb attack from World War II. Deadly radiation covered the entire area, including this park, which was only 2.5 kilometers away from the reactor. And when you look at Pripyat Amusement Park, you may think that it was abandoned because of this disaster, but you would actually be wrong. It said that this amusement park actually opened one day after the disaster occurred as nuclear fallout enveloped the area in a toxic, invisible cloud. The Pripyat Amusement Park is a relatively small amusement park that had a 26-meter or 85-feet-tall barris wheel, swing boats, a paratrooper ride, bumper cars, and a shooting game. But it was more than just rides. It was kind of a symbol of the future of the city where the younger population could make memories and relax, escaping from the stress of daily life. It was actually originally named the Park of Culture and Rest.

Now, this park was set to open on May 1, 1986, but after the Chernobyl disaster, it was decided that the park would open the following day. See, initially, it wasn't known just how devastating the fallout was from the explosion, and people weren't told to evacuate the area until 36 hours after it occurred. And in that time, some reports say that this park opened as a distraction. It's believed that the Soviet Union wanted people to have something to do to take their minds off of the bright blue column of light that shot straight into the stratosphere coming from reactor four. But also, they wanted to quell the rumors that were starting to spread amongst the 50,000 residents of Pripyat that something was wrong.

For one day, small children, their parents, and groups of teens ran around the grounds, jumping in and out of metal bumper cars, swinging on the brand new swing sets. The sound of their laughter would have swirled in the raspberry-hued air, mixing with the devastating amounts of radiation that was pummeling through their bones and their tissue, causing irreparable damage. Radiation that would go on to give over 6,000 of those people in Pripyat thyroid cancer

in the coming years. Radiation that would genetically alter wildlife for generations, knocking out the insects of the area, mutating the fish into these giant river monsters that still inhabit the waters there to this day? By the following afternoon, the city was told to evacuate, to just grab all of their valuables and go. They weren't sure if they would ever be able to return, and many of them only grabbed what they could, thinking that they would come back for the rest of it at some point.

Unfortunately, they would never be able to. because now that area is known as the Chernobyl exclusion zone, a 1,000-mile radius area around the disaster site where it is illegal to live. In the city of Pripyat, there are schools that still lay abandoned, kindergarten nap beds are still neatly made like the kids will just come back at any moment. There's a hospital there still full of paperwork and medical equipment

that looks incredibly eerie if you see the pictures, and there's an entire amusement park that sits waiting for the kids to one day return, the children who for one day got to ride on the swings and bumper cars, and many of those children who have died in the following years because of the effects of the radiation. Now, the radiation didn't just harm the people that were there. It also disintegrated these areas at alarming rates

because it would just eat through the metal. So even though it's only been 40 years, since the disaster occurred, some parts of Pripyat look like they've been abandoned for hundreds of years. And today, the area is pretty heavily regulated, but that hasn't stopped people from exploring, especially the area by the amusement park. There is a community of people who sneak into the exclusion zone. They're known as stalkers. And the reason that we have information on what the Pripyat Amusement Park looks like today is because of these stalkers.

Now, I will make a quick note here that much of this area in present day looks very different because of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. The Chernobyl plant itself was very briefly under Russian control early on in the invasion and much of the immediate area is still an active war zone. But the research I did for this episode comes from Ukrainian stalkers who were reporting on this area before 2022. In present day, the park has been completely taken over by nature. Think weeds and radioactive moss.

It's considered one of the most radiated areas in the abandoned city, aside from the hospital where a bunch of radioactive clothing has been sealed in the basement. To visit this park, it's not just creepy. It's potentially deadly. But that hasn't stopped life from finding a way. Wildlife has come back stronger than before in the woods surrounding the area. There weren't wolves pre-disaster, but they have been spotted on trail cams hiding out by the swings in the Ferris wheel. There's also bears and miniature horses.

But one of the most fascinating animals that has inhabited the area, especially around the amusement park, are the cats and dogs. See, when people were evacuating, they left so quickly. Many of them weren't able to save their pets. It's horrible. I tear up just thinking about having to leave my dog Fitzgerald behind to save my family, not knowing what would happen to him. And children waved tearfully goodbye to the family cats and dogs,

thinking that they may die from the radiation exposure. But here's the thing. Many of them didn't. They survived and they adapted. And they had many, many puppies and kittens. And now house pets have become wild again in the area. And I might add, they are thriving. These animals hunt and hide from predators just like the other wild animals in the zone,

but they're also domestic at heart so they know where the guards and stalkers hang out, which does tend to be around the amusement park. So these animals go and befriend the humans who now regularly bring them treats and fresh water. Ukrainian officials who patrolled the area before the current war were given explicit instructions to not touch the dogs. The risk that they were carrying deadly amounts of radiation was just too high. However, nearly every official says they do not follow that rule. Here's a quote I found from one of them. Quote, The dogs give us joy. For me, personally, this is a kind of symbol of the continuation of life in this radioactive post-apocalyptic world.

So while this abandoned amusement park represents death and decay, once-in-a-lifetime tragedy, it also represents life-finding away. If you want to hear more about the Chernobyl exclusion zone, especially the urban legends and the ghost stories, which I know you do, this is what our bonus episode on Patreon and Apple subscriptions is about from last month. We talk about the mothman of Chernobyl that was seen just days before the disaster struck. We talk about the creepy dolls that keep showing up all around the zone with no explanation. And I go a bit more into the animal mutations and potential cryptids that have emerged because of the radiation. And so much more. So make sure you go and check that out. More after a short break. For our last adventure, I'm taking you to a park with cursed roots going back hundreds of

hundreds of years. Lake Shawnee Amusement Park sits empty and abandoned in a heavily wooded area of West Virginia near the Virginia border, nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The park, like the lake itself, is pretty small, just a couple of acres of rides that honestly look like they were built by hand. It's not even as big as a traveling carnival would be. But like most places in Appalachia, as you know from listening to this show, it's a place where rich and tragic history meets really vibrant folklore. It's rumored to be built on cursed land, and guess what? I went back through a lot of old newspapers to find the true story for you guys.

And of course, we do have a couple of ghosts in this one as well. Lake Shawnee Amusement Park opened in 1926 as a playground for children led by a man named Conley Snydow. It featured swimming in the small lake, a ferris wheel, a swing set, and a couple other attractions. There were cute little cottages that families could rent for $10 for an entire weekend. And though it was on the smaller side, the park was a hit for local coal miners and their families. And it's believed that in the 1940s, over 10,000 people visited on 4th of July weekends. However, a few devastating accidents would eventually lead to the park's closure in 1966. Now, among the attractions was a spinning, swinging ride located in the children's playground.

It was one of the most beloved rides amongst the younger children. One day in the 1950s, and I will say it's hard to find an exact date on when this took place, as the ride spun, a delivery truck was carrying soda and it approached the refreshment stand, trying to maneuver into a position to unload. And it seems like the driver may have misjudged the distance, or maybe he simply wasn't paying attention. But he backed the truck directly into the pass. of the swiftly moving swings.

In one horrifying instant, a swing carrying a 10-year-old girl and a pink-ruffled dress slammed into the truck. The sight was horrific. Parents tried to shield their children from the scene, but unfortunately, it was too late. And then, a decade later, tragedy struck again. In the summer of 1966,

an 11-year-old boy was dropped off by his mother who told him that she would come pick him up by the end of the day. She watched as he excitedly ran off towards the pool where dozens of children were laughing and splashing around under the watch of a few lifeguards, and she returned that evening, expecting her son to be waiting by the exit gate of the park, but when she got there, he was nowhere to be found. And reasonably, she began to worry, so she parked her car and she went to go search the grounds for him herself. And she went to the last place she saw him, which was the swimming

pool. But now it was completely empty. Even the lifeguards had gone home for the day. But there, floating lifeless in the water, was the body of her son. Exactly how he drowned remained subject of speculation and tragedy, and it's unclear, again, how no lifeguards saw him drown. The most commonly repeated story here is that the boy's arm somehow became trapped in the pool's drainage pipe, and it pinned him beneath the water. He may have been down there for hours without the lifeguards even noticing before he finally surfaced after everyone had already left. It's believed that at least four other children were killed at the park before it closed,

including a three-year-old girl who was crushed by a lift, though information can be hard to find on these deaths, even as I scoured through old newspapers. But for how many children died on the grounds in such a short period of time, People started to wonder if the whole area was somehow cursed. Conley closed the park in 1966, and it was eventually bought by a man named Gaylord White in the 80s, but it was closed again after just three years. And years later, he was out excavating the land when he noticed something in the dirt below his excavator.

There were bones everywhere, thousands of them. The bones looked old and worn, and they weren't in caskets or near graves. Also, around the bones, he started finding clay pots and arrowheads. It seemed like he had stumbled upon a Native American burial ground. And this is when people really started talking about a supposed curse on the land near Shawnee Lake. But I wanted to look into this more, because people are quick to say, oh, it was built on a Native American graveyard, and that's why it's haunted. And I actually find that to be kind of annoying, and it's this trope in horror movies that I think

is used too much. So I decided I needed to get to the bottom of this. And, well, I found out it is true. The land that Shawnee Amusement Park sat on is actually a Native American burial ground, but it's a little bit more complicated than the local legend suggests. So the Shawnee Native Americans lived on this land as early as 1,000 AD, and yes, their remains. are scattered all over the area, but the bones found near Shawnee Lake are a little bit more tragic. See, these bones were all dated to around the same year, 1282, and they all belonged to children,

3,000 of them, to be exact. These remains all showed disease that caused bones and dental deterioration, so these kids had all died from the same illness in what seems to be the same year, or just a few years. So technically, the idea that this is a big Native American burial ground isn't totally unfounded, but I will just add here, it's a big Native American children's burial ground, which feels way worse, in my opinion.

And years went by after the deaths of all these kids, and we don't really know much about what happened on the land. But then, in 1777, tragedy struck again when a well-respected Shawnee chief named, Hocloxois was murdered by American militiamen. And as the story goes, Hocloxois was one of the biggest advocates for peace amongst the Native Americans and revolutionary war soldiers.

And after his death, there was no one there to maintain peace between the two groups, and the Shawnee tribe decided that peace would get them nowhere. So they vowed to avenge him. And finally, the opportunity for vengeance came when three years later, a slave owner named Mitchell Clay bought 800,

acres of Shawnee land, including the lake. And according to the Beckley Post Herald newspaper, Clay traded a slave woman and her young daughter for the land. And the whole thing, the exchange, the living on their land, all of it really infuriated the Shawnee tribe. So one day, when Clay was off tending to the farm, his children were playing down by Lake Shawnee when they were approached by members of the Shawnee tribe. Two of the oldest children, 20-year-old Tabitha and 17-year-old Bartley were killed on the spot, and 16-year-old Ezekiel was taken by the tribe. The younger children watched in horror, but they were all spared.

The tribe wasn't interested in any of the clay children that weren't yet adults. Ezekiel's body was later found burned on a stake outside of the property. The Shawnee had sent their message. Now, the clay children were all buried in shallow graves, near the lake, and little did the father know that he was actually mixing his children's remains with the remains of the Shawnee children who died 500 years prior. And some people believe that this history is why the land is curse. It's the reason, they say, for not only all of the disasters that took place on the grounds, but for some of the more supernatural sightings that have also

occurred there. I mean, think about it. The death toll on the land is already so high. You have the thousands of Shawnee children buried on the grounds in the park, plus the clay children that were also buried there. And then there's the kids who died while they were playing at the park. The former park owner, Gaylord White, who found the bones initially that were buried on the property, knew that this place was haunted for a very long time. One time he felt this unexplainable weight on his shoulders as he was operating his tractor near the swing ride in the 1990s. He turned around and he said that he saw a young girl in a ruffled dress, the one who died on the ride, silently observing him.

And before he knew it, she was gone. He left his tractor there and ran, and it said that his tractor still sits in the exact same spot today where he left it back then. And that's not the only sighting of the little girl who died on the swings. If you were to approach the exact swing that she was sitting on, you may see a little pink ribbon tied to it in her honor. And if you were to stay there until the sunset, you might notice the swing start rocking back and forth while the other ones stay perfectly still. And you might also catch a glimpse of her little ruffled pink dress darting around the area.

Now Bucket 10 on the Ferris wheel is another place that people often see a full body apparition. No one ever died on this ride, at least not that I read about. So no one is certain who this person is. but a young boy can be seen there staring out into the distance. It's also believed that the seatbelts of Bucket Ten will fasten and unfasten on its own. So in the field off to the side of the lake where most of the bones of the Shawnee children were found, people have reported hearing chanting and weeping. It's believed that those are the mothers and fathers of the young children who died of disease 800 years ago.

And some people to this day will still approach the field and offer gifts, but they do report a feeling of eyes on them constantly, like they're being watched at all times from all angles. And I wonder about that feeling. Did Conley Snydow feel those eyes when he broke ground to build the park? Did Mitchell Clay feel them as he built his home on the 800 acres of land he bartered for? Have they always been there watching and waiting? And will they ever leave. Well, if you're feeling brave enough to find out for yourself, you can book daytime and overnight tours of Lake Shawnee Amusement Park. All I ask if you do that is that you report back to me on what you find. Obviously, I need to hear all about it. Please do not try to go to the other parks I

talked about in this episode. Disney is honestly already mad at me enough and you should not go into the Chernobyl exclusion zone for, well, what I believe are obvious reasons. But do you have any abandoned in scary places near you, amusement parks, or otherwise. Please let me know wherever you listen, you may never know which one of your stories may end up here in an episode. And that's all I have for you for this week's dark summer episode. Join me here next week for an international story of a quiet, beautiful park in Germany where bodies kept showing up one summer.

You definitely don't want to miss it. And until then, stay curious. Woo! Heart Starts Pounding is written and produced by me, Kayla Moore. Heart Starts Pounding is also produced by Matt Brown. Our associate producer is Juno Hobbs. Sound design and mix by Peachtree Sound. Special thanks to Travis Dunlap, Grayson Jernigan, the team at WME and Ben Jaffe. Have a heart pounding story or a case request.

Check out heartsitespounding.com.