Morbid - Episode 171: Lake Shawnee Amusement Park

Episode Date: September 13, 2020

This week we are getting spooky with it. You might be an amusement park junkie, but we’re warning you, hold on to your butts if you’re headed to the Lake Shawnee Amusement park. Alaina gives us the intense history surrounding the land before it became a park, the horrible events that happened while it was a functioning park and the aftermath of the defunct park today. We’re serious, you’re going to want to be holding on tight to that butt! Books used for research: Kentucky Clay by Katherine Bateman Haunted America by Dave Thompson  As always thank you to our sponsors SIMPLISAFE: Head to SimpliSafe.com/MORBID and get a FREE HD CAMERA for our listeners! CAREOF: For 50% off your first Care/of order, go to TakeCareOf.com/morbid50 and enter code morbid50 PURPLE: Experience The Purple Grid and you’ll sleep like never before! Go to Purple.com/morbid10, and use promo code morbid10 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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That's W-O-N-D-E-R-Y-P-O-D. Audible.com slash wondery pod or text wondery pod to 500-500 to try audible for free for 30 days. Angie has made it easier than ever to connect with skilled professionals to get all your home projects done well. Whether it's routine maintenance and emergency repair or a dream project, Angie lets you browse home on her reviews, compare quotes from multiple local pros, and even book a service instantly. So the next time you have a home project, just Angie that and start getting the most out

of your home. Download the free Angie mobile app today or visit Angie.com. That's ANGI.com. Hey weirdos, I'm Ash and I'm Elena and excited about this one. You know I asked you what this was and then I was getting ready to come over here and I was like, what the fuck are we recording tonight? It's, I decided to go, I'm not going to say this is light because it's certainly not. I decided to go in a light direction. But I, I needed to get, after my run, Ian, I just needed to go in a little different

direction. Okay. You know, I just needed like not a straight up case for a week. I needed like a, something dark and twisted and a different one. Yeah, dark and twisted in a different way. Yeah, dark and twisted in a different way. That's a good way to put it because I was going to say it's not light, it's not jaunty, it's not anything. It's just a different kind of dark and tacit.

And the other side of the spectrum. Exactly. And it involves gosties. Ooh. You know, that's always fun. That is fun. I think we don't really have a whole lot of business to get to this week. But one thing I wanted to mention that's really exciting is that

they are going to be looking back into the Tamla Horseford case. So many people have been tweeting at me and I like woke up either yesterday or the day before to like so many mentions on the morbid Twitter and I was like, oh my god, like that's like one that I was really excited about. This one has been bothering me since I started researching. I mean, I heard about it a long time ago, and it bothered me then, but it really bothered me when I started researching it. So they must have found something new, right? I don't know.

I don't know what the reason for it is. I don't know if it's like the fact that it's just very clear that she was murdered. Yeah, I mean, I'm ready to hear some new stuff. I'm ready for them to take another look at it. I'm ready for them to talk to those women again in the minute that party. Yeah. I mean, I'm ready to hear some new stuff. I'm ready for them to take another look at it. I'm ready for them to talk to those women again in the men at that party. Yeah. I'm ready for all of it.

Let's do it. Something is real shady there. Then is sinister at that party, man. I will stick by that. I hope. Well, and I'm happy for her family, too, when her best friend, exactly, who is fought for that and literally got sued. Yeah, and I think her family actually spoke for the first time in a long time about it and said they were like, yes, something

happened at that part. Good. We want to know what? Good. And they deserve to know. Hey, yeah, her children and her husband. Yeah. She had like five children, right? Yeah, she had, I mean, she was and she was like a dedicated mom. Like it's such a good mom. It's like they deserve to know. Right. So yeah, so that's exciting true crime news. That's exciting true crime news. We also have exciting morbid news. We have the merch that we already,

that's already up on shop.morbidpodcast.com. And we're actually hopefully going to be adding some new stuff within the next couple of weeks. So keep your eyes peeled and it's going to be really cool. And we're really excited about these new designs because we specifically came up with these. Yes. These are like hard designs. So we're very, very excited. Not like ours were like we made them, but like the ideas were coming from our beautifully morbid minds. Exactly. And then somebody, some beautiful artists just did it for us. Exactly.

So we're excited about that. We'll keep you updated on that. Other than that, ooh, I have an exciting Patreon episode that I can't wait to do. Oh, that's exciting. And it's inspired by my youngest. Oh, yeah. What? Oh, wait, yeah, yeah.

You know. No, I was like, I don't know where we're going. Yes, it's inspired by my littlest daughter. And this month we're also gonna be doing a pasta dinner on Patreon. So if you wanna know what that means, all you have to donate is minimum $3 to the Patreon. And there's some cool ass episodes, other cool ass shit.

We're working on more Patreon goodies. They are literally being produced at this very moment. Yes, so. Literally as we speak. We promise those will be going out soon and... And the pasta dinner, make sure you send in your pasta dinner. We've gotten a ton of pasta dinner. And I'm very excited for them.

So, guys, sign up and bring the garlic bread. Yes. Alright, so let's get into this dark twisted spectrum. Dark twisty situation. Remind me what the fuck we're recording today. So what we're gonna be talking about is the Lake Shawnee amusement park. That's what you texted me.

Yes, I remember. Now, I, this is one of those cases that I started out. I did all my research. I like really, I hit kind of a wall at one point and was like, well, I think I have all the information I can get. You know how you found something? And then it was like maybe like floor pages.

And for me, that's just, yeah, that's a no-go. For me, that's a many more, but. So when I hit the floor page, Mark, and I was like, down, I was like, do I even want to do this? I don't even know. I was like, that's not enough information. I started getting mad.

And then I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna keep looking for this one little detail that I couldn't get enough information about. Yeah. And I kept digging and I got it. And then it just spidered into a bunch more information and I got like way more pages out of it. Sweet. And that is one of my favorite things.

That is fun. The feeling of suddenly opening up and you have this whole other realm of information. Yeah. Like guys, I fucking love research. Well that's what happened to me with the brand of Super Fuff. It's so fun. Well, that's what happened to me with the brand of Super Fuff. It's so fun. It's so fun.

Well, that's what happened to me with the brand of Super Fuff. It's so fun. Well, that's what happened to me with the brand of Super Fuff. It's so fun. Well, that's what happened to me with the brand of Super Fuff. Well, that's what happened to me with the brand of Super Fuff. Well, that's what happened to me with the brand of Super Fuff. Well, that's what happened to me with the brand of Super Fuff.

Well, that's what happened to me with the brand of Super F. Well, that's what happened to me with the brand of Super F. Well, that's what happened to me with the brand of Super F. Well, that's what happened to me with the brand of Super F. Well, that's what happened to me with the brand of Super F. Well, that's what happened to me with the brand of Super F. Well, that's what happened to me with the brand of Super F Well, that's what happened to me with the brand of Super F Because I was online, I found two articles and I was online, I found two articles and I was online, I found two articles

and I was like, oh, this would be so good, but like, there I just love it. It just made me happy so the Lake Shawnee amusement park We're gonna take it way back to like 1600 1700 okay, so yeah So where this is is this is in West Virginia? Okay a amusement park that will this defunct a amusement park that was defunct amusement park now. So in the 1700s where this was, which is current day, Mercer County, was a Native American village, the Shawnee tribe. And I believe it was one other tribe. I couldn't find an exact witch tribe also inhabited this land at one point.

But the Shawnee's obviously it's named after their tribe, they're like the more prevalent one here. Gotcha. So in 1775, a guy named Mitchell Clay was one of the first English settlers in what is now presently Mercer County, originally Clover Bottom, West Virginia. They should have kept Clover Bottom. Clover Bottom. I like that. I think it's pretty funny. They should have kept Clover bottom. Clover bottom. I like that. I think it's pretty funny. The year before, so in 1774, he had received a crown grant from Lord Dunmore, the Royal

Governor of Virginia, for his participation in Dunmore's War. Okay. So we got a grant, and with this grant, he was able to get somewhere between 800 and 1200 acres of land. Shit. Yeah. And this was on both sides of the Bluestone River, which is between what is now Princeton, Virginia and Matoka. Okay.

And I'm just saying it's a anybody who lives in that area can kind of get an idea of where this is because it's like back then it was called this but now it's called this. Yeah, it's in there. No, that's fine. So he moved on to this land. He moved on to it with his wife Phoebe.

Her maiden name was Belcher. And they had 14 children. Jesus Christ. Yeah. So they needed all that acreage. Yeah. You got a lot of kids. Yeah, one for acre.

Yeah, and then some. Yeah. And then a lot more. And then some. They were just leaving the door open to have 1, 1200 more children. Well, you know like grandkids and shit. Yeah, you know, it's because in this uncle's brother sisters, you'll fill it. It's a village. I'm not worried about it clay. It's cool.

So they took that land and they made it a farmland because there's a lot of land. What the fuck else are you going to do with it? They also built like a farmhouse here. All that good stuff. And an amusement park? Not yet, okay. So unfortunately, this is like 1700s, so I don't think the most part of it. Everybody died. We're super prevalent. Oh, but they're one down.

There was a pretty bitter battle going on for this land. Okay. Because the surrounding Shawnee tribes were pretty pissed that it was just straight up taken from them. Because that was their land. Because that is the narrative of the 1700s. It's like, hey, that was mine. You can't just have it.

Yeah, no, that's not how that works. But alas, the settlers were like, no, we can. And they just did. Good. Good people. Again, after all, no agreements had been made. It was just that, you know, they just came in, they surveyed the land and built it up for themselves. They wanted, they got it.

They wanted, they got it. That's fucked up. No, the Shawnee tribesmen had, they had warned the Clay family many times, like we're pissed. We're going crazy. We've got to get out of here. And nothing happened. Now, it's important to note that anthropologists, this is gonna come back later.

Anthropologists determined later that the two different tribes that once lived on this land had actually not been inhabiting it for a number of years, like decades before the Clay family came to claim it. Okay. But just because they weren't actively living there

when the Clay's, was it sad? Was it sad? It's sad. You're taking my thunder. Sorry. You really are. It's sad. It's sad. It's sad. It's sad. It's sad. It's sad.

It's sad. It's sad. It's sad. It's sad. It's sad. It's sad. It's sad. It's sad.

It's sad. It's sad. It's sad. It's sad. It's sad. It's sad. It's sad. It's sad.

It's sad. It's sad. It's sad. It's sad. It's sad. You can't live here because we're using it. Okay. Stay tuned. I will explain what they were using it for. I'm not going to gas. This is like you've taken my crescendo. So August 1783, Mitchell Clay asked two of his sons, two of his 14 children, Bartley and Azikil. He asked them to build a fence around some grain that he had recently purchased. And one of his daughters, Tabitha, I think it was the eldest daughter, was doing some of the washing nearby. Okay. You know, because they didn't have washing machines in 1700s.

I don't know if anybody knows that. No. No. Those came a little bit later. Like 17 or 5? Yeah, you know. Okay. So they're out there doing all that good stuff. And then 11 Shawnee Native Americans attacked the boys. Okay. They killed Bartley with a single shot and they grabbed a Zigil. Now Tabitha was with some other girls while she was doing the washing and she heard the shot and came running. She was going to be running back to her house, but she happened to go buy where it happened. She sees her brother and she sees that he's on the ground, that something bad is happening,

so she goes and rushes to him without even thinking just to try to save him, because she's the eldest, she's trying to be helpful. In the process, she was stabbed to death on site. Oh, wow. Yes. What makes a person a murderer? Are they born to kill or are they made to kill? I'm Candace DeLong and on my podcast Killer Psychie Daily, which you can find exclusively on Amazon Music. I share a quick 10-minute rundown every week day on

the motivations and behaviors of the criminal masterminds you read about in the news. I have decades of experience as a psychiatric nurse, FBI agent, and a criminal profiler. On Killer Psychie Daily, I'll give you my expert perspective on cases like the mysterious New York City drugings, Breaking Down Lori Vallow, a.k.a. Mommy Doom stays motives and what drove Caitlin Armstrong to murder. I'll also bring on expert guests who add even more insight into these criminal minds. I promise you won't regret adding these 10 minutes to your morning routine. Hey Prime members, listen to the Amazon Music exclusive podcast Killer Psychie Daily in the Amazon Music app. Download the app today.

Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wondery's podcast American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in US history, presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our newest series, we look at the Kids for Cash Scandal, a story about corruption inside America's system of juvenile justice. In Northeastern Pennsylvania, residents had begun noticing an alarming trend. Children were being sent away to jail in high numbers, and often for committing only minor offenses.

The FBI began looking at two local judges, and when the full picture emerged, it made national headlines. The judges were earning a fortune, carrying out a brazen criminal scheme, one that would shatter the lives of countless children, and force a heated debate about punishment, an America's criminal justice system. Follow American scandal wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wonder App. So two of the kids have now been murdered on this site.

Yes. While this was happening, a neighbor named Ligon Blakenship, same, yep, Ligon, Ligon Blakenship. Ligon Blakenship. He witnessed it because he was also outhunting, and I believe he was, the stories that he was either outhunting or he was coming to the Clay Residence to like visit them, but it was the 1700s, so it's a little shaky. So information has been, you know, to their tattered a little. The telephone game has gotten a little shaky. So information has been, you know, to their tattered a little. The telephone game has gotten a little shaky. He was actually, like, buying a new house that time. Yeah, so it's like buying a new house.

He was like, I'll take this shack, thank you. According to Kentucky Clay, 11 generations of a Southern dynasty by Catherine R. Bateman, it's a book. OK. I don't think there's a whole lot else in there that, like, pertains to any of this, but this one chapter did. Phoebe had begged Ligon, and I think it's Ligon, it's L-I-G-G-O-N.

Ligon, it's actually Ligon. Ligon? So who cares? Ligon. So Phoebe, the mother, is begging this guy. He's like, you have to save Tabitha. Like, while she was being stabbed, she was like, save Tabitha. Like, this was while she was being stabbed. She was like, save Tabitha, shoot them, like, help me. Yeah.

And Bateman says that now Bateman who wrote the book is one of the Clay Children's great, great, great, grand daughter. So just, you know, that's the information. It's like in her family. That's how she knows it. So instead of saving Tabitha or shooting her killer, Ligon just ran away back into the woods.

I don't blame him. I'd be like, I'm not getting involved in that shit. Well, unfortunately, he and his family were kind of saddled with this reputation of cowardice after this decision. Well, it's like, do you want to get involved in a property battle? Well, and in fact, a newspaper clipping from 1977 about the massacre said that, that

Ligon, it said about him, quote, this cowardly behavior of Blake and ship had been handed down from generation to generation, and perhaps will be until the end of time. Wow. So they're literally just like, yeah, you and your family are all going to be cowards until the end of time. That's actually where courage, the cowardly dog came from. It's like real, real, real rough. I feel bad for Lincoln.

That's the blackened ships. I feel real bad. Ah. Personally, I think it's kind of harsh because he likely only had like one shot. It's not like he had like a semi-automatic rifle. And there's probably like, he calls up all people, like involved in this obvious.

There were 11. Yeah. There were 11 Native Americans and then the one's one blanket ship. So he probably has one shot. And if he happens to shoot one of them, what happens now?

And even if he had like five shots still. Yeah, right. It's like there's 10 others now. He's screwed no matter what. He's not gonna win. And what a lot of people do think when they try to defend his actions is that they say like he probably made that decision

as a distraction to let Phoebe get the rest of the kids and go another way. Yeah, he gets a bad rap, I feel bad for him. I agree with you. So it was Phoebe who ran out there. So once they had killed Tabata, they killed Bartley. Ezekiel was the third one obviously and they just took Ezekiel.

There was a life. Okay. So Phoebe runs out there with her younger children. She drags Tabatha and Bartley's bodies back into their home. Lies them in bed together. Oh. And she was determined to keep her other children safe. So she had them all run with her six miles through the woods to a man named John Bailey's house for safety. She's so is their closest neighbor six miles away. Six miles away. Now Mitchell Clay, the father, had returned home from hunting. Oh my God.

Oh my God. To find the scene of the massacre on the property and his children dead in bed. Right. And he assumed the entire family was massacred or taken. Right. So he runs to John Bailey's to form a search party. Because Phoebe didn't shoot him a text. And he didn't shoot him a text to be like, going to John B's.

Right. Catch you there. Maybe there. Like shit is gone awry. Well, and obviously he found the rest of them there. And Phoebe and Mitchell headed back out to Barry, Bartley and Tabata in the sites on the property. Wow.

And the sights where they are buried, they are still buried there. What? Yeah, and it's marked. Now Mitchell gathered other settlers and went after the Native Americans who now had his son Ezekiel. Okay.

They were led by Captain Matthew Farley. So unfortunately Ezekiel was taken to Ohio and he was burned at the stake. Oh my God, he was 16 years old. And like such, like, peripheral ways. And it's like, I wonder why they killed them all in different ways. Yeah, I don't know.

I mean, I think initially it was like they shot Bartley. That was probably the, what was gonna happen and they maybe they were gonna take a Zegiel. Who knows? Yeah. But Tabitha kind of inserted herself to help her brother and I think that one that was more of a crime of opportunity. Yeah. Like she we have to get rid of her and this is all I have. Right. So they burned him at the stake. He was 16 years old. And in the process, there was tons of blood shed on both sides. I mean, many Native Americans, as well as settlers died, the non-indigenous settlers took strips of skin off the dead Native Americans backs, and ended up using them as razor straps.

What? Yeah. And then those skin strips were passed down to several members of the family for years and years and years. They became like family adults. How fucked is that? What? Yeah. And that's like a fact.

Like that family. That's a fact. Like that's not like just bullshitting at that time. Back time with Elena. The family, the clay family, like past those strips of skin from Native Americans backs. Like very edgene of them.

Very. It's just, it's real fucked. The whole thing is fucked. It's just fucked from beginning to end. Now, Bartley and Tabitha, like I said, were buried on the site where the amusement park was later. I was, I was like, wait, so the amusement park it's filled over them?

Yes. Okay. So after Ezekiel's burning at the stake, the chief of the Shawnee tribe actually let Mitchell take his body back to be properly buried. That's amazing. And he let him a horse to do so. What the fuck?

Shit was wild. That is weird. Shit was funny. I mean, that's very noble question mark. Sure is. No, noble. The whole thing is like question mark. What?

Like, why don't this make sense? Okay. So he did and One of the stories I saw was that we don't know where Zekiel is buried and the other one says that they exhumed his other children and then buried them all together Still on the property. Okay, either way we know Bartley and Tabitha are buried on the property and there is an exact Marker for where they are. Okay. But as Ekeel were not quite sure. Question mark.

So the marker is a stone monument on the site that states that they were murdered in that fields. Yeah. Like the stone marker says it, and that the stone was, quote, erected August 14th, 1937, on an exact site of the graves. Wow. Yeah.

And now it's like, want to go ride the Swirly Tournament. Yeah, let's go. Phoebe refused to ever go back to the farm. I can't say I blame her. But some members of the Clay family did go back and lived there for a while. I mean, it's different for the mom. Yeah, for sure.

I wouldn't want to be anywhere near that. Now 144 years later, just a casual 144. Just shoot for it really quick. In 1927, a guy named Conley Snido, I think it has decided to be a cunning businessman, and he was like, I'm going to buy up this land. Because during this time in the area in West Virginia, coal mining was like exploding in the area, and families were moving in that it was a booming business, you know, so like, Sino saw an opportunity to really make some money. He saw that he could provide entertainment for these families that are moving in here and he was like, you know what,

let's do this. Let's get it. So initially he had the swings erected, these like giant, we're definitely gonna post photos of this. I'm excited to see it. Hell, it's creepy. I wanna go here, it's on my bucket list. Can I ask a dumb question?

It's not still in a amusement park, right? Or it is. It's a defunct amusement park, like a bandit. That's so cool. And the swings are like these giant, I mean, you see them in music parts now. They're the big giant swings that like swing around. I love those.

But these ones are like wooden planks with chains. You should not be swinging in the air from the other 1800s. There's no good. Well, this is in 1927. Oh shit, okay. But so he initially had those swings erected. He had a water slide going into like a man-made pond. Fond.

He had a Ferris wheel, a dance hall. He had pools made. There was a speakeasy. Hell yeah. People were gambling, dancing. There was all kinds of cool stuff. That sounds really fun. It was really hoppin' in the 20s.

Yeah. They rented out, they would rent out wool bathing suits for the pools for 15 cents. Wool bathing suits. They think suits. Yucco. And they were, they were driving boards going into all the pools. I mean, it was all very wholesome and fun and very 20s. It's come 1934.

We're just going to pop forward a little bit. Shoot. Everything's going fine at the amusement park, you know. Whatever it's fallen off the swings yet. Not quite yet. James Kraft Belcher is 25 years old. And if you remember the name Belcher, from Bob's Burgers. No.

I mean, he was the one of the great grandchildren of the original family who owned the property. VBs made a name was Belcher. You had said that. Now, he grew up on the property. Yeah. He was married, but he was having an affair with a 19 year old woman named Myrtle Taylor.

No good. Which like Myrtle, I'm like, what is with that name? I think it's Rick Gatsby. And I'm like, immediately what I thought of. Myrtle's out there, you all. And then like, moaning Myrtle, she was a little bit of a bia. There you go, what's with Myrtle's?

I'm just saying. So he was estranged from his wife because he was a drunk cheating asshole. Correct. They weren't divorced and he was still like, we have a woman. Well, it's like the 30s at this point you said. Yeah. I don't think like divorce was very prevalent back

No, it definitely wasn't like but they should have been yeah, no because he sounded like an ass now it well Sounded he was a man. May 11th 1934. He finds Mertle having dinner with another man It's like she doesn't belong to you bro. You're still married doesn't I mean no one belongs to anybody I'm just like no,'t belong to you, bro. You're still married. I mean, no one belongs to anybody. I'm just like, no, you know what I mean? Just, no, it's exactly, well, it's like that's the thing. You're literally cheating on your wife with her. And she can't go to anything. Like, I'm your side hoe, but I can't have a side hoe.

What? What you say? Excuse me. I don't understand. Well, he lost it. And he literally forced her out of the place and into his car. Now he essentially kidnapped her. Good, good, good. Essentially in like, broad daylight.

He stops the car along the road that borders the Lake Shani property. So right next to the amusement park, okay, gets out of the car and there in the road, he shoots her in the head twice. What? Yep. She initially lived and he drove her to the hospital, but she did die very shortly afterwards. He claimed insanity, but he didn't get it.

Because he's not insane. He ended up horrible. He's just a dick and he ended up going to prison. He lived to be 83 years old and died in like 1993. Oh, shit. That's crazy. But so that's a weird thing that happened literally right on the property.

Right outside. That's another one. And after this, six deaths happened in the amusement park between the time it opened and when it closed later in 1966. Because it's cursed. Now, in a hotel where the family, where Conley Snidow's family was living, Conley Snidow's the guy who bought the amusement park. His three-year-old daughter Eloise ran for the elevator and was

crushed in between the floor and the door going up. Oh my god. Yep, and obviously it was killed. So July 3rd 1966, a little boy of 11 years old named John Richard Tiley drowned in the swimming pool on the property. Oh no. The ponds were lined with cement, like they had lined them to make them like natural pools, basically. Yeah. And this boy got his arm, his arm or his clothing stuck in the drain at the bottom and drowned. Oh my god. The workers filled the pond with sand afterwards and it was just kind of like swept away. They're like, oh, sorry about that. I was like, whoops. Another little boy, six years old, named Wayne Harmon Drowned in the Lake on the property. His mother and brothers were there swimming with him.

Several other swimmers were as well. And lifeguards were on duty, but no one noticed it until it was too late. Oh my god, I wonder what happened. And what they said was somebody just happened to brush up against his body on the bottom. And we're like, oh shit. And then they just pulled them out. Jesus. Yeah. Now there is a theory about what happened. So in 1966, this one's crazy. And probably the most well-known of the deaths on here. A little girl around 10 years old died on the giant swings. What happened was a truck delivering drinks to the park was turning around, backed into the path of the swings, and the little girl on the swing met the truck

at a high speed and was killed gruesomely. Oh my god. I literally just ratted against the side of a moving vehicle. What the hell witnesses said she was wearing a ruffled pink dress and it was absolutely soaked in blood. Obviously. I thought anybody remembers. Oh my god. Now, I know, it's crazy.

So it was closed in 1966 as a direct result of these deaths. Conley Snydo knew that losing children's lives was just not worth the money. He was making shit tons of money, but he was like, it's not worth it. Because at this point, after Eloise's death, he was like, I can relate to this. I'm not doing this. So, he really did the right thing.

That's good. Like, good for Conley Snydo. Yeah. Because a lot of other dudes or women who like our business people would have been like, well, you know, a lot of the lines, you know, like when he was like, no, I owe it to these parents to shut this down. That's good. So, 1966 1966 it closes.

There are a couple of other deaths that are listed in a book called Haunted America by Dave Thompson because it said six deaths, those are only like three. So it's like what's happened to the others. I could only find two more. And one little girl was, another little girl was on the swings and she fell out of the swings. I was gonna say there had to have been more of the swings. Because when you see these swings, you're like, how did everybody not die? Because you see the swings now even and you're like, obviously they're fine, but you're like, are they? You're like, that doesn't look right.

In the 30s, I can't imagine that they were. That are you doing good. No, when you see these, it's literally just like a rotted piece of wood with chains to it. Like just the fact that the truck was able to back up right there, not funny, but like, not what the fuck, not a good thing. So one was the little girl falling off the swings and perishing and the other one was a gambler on site who was killed over money. Oh, no. Yeah, so there's a lot going on.

Fast forward to the 1980s, because it's closed in 66. So it was open for like 30 years. It was open for a long time, yeah. So in the 1980s, a guy named Gaylord White, a local businessman, and someone who actually worked at the original amusement park when he was younger. Yeah. He bought the land and he was like, you know what, I wanna redo this.

I wanna make it an amusement park again, make it fresh, four kids. The swings actually weren't there when he acquired the land, but he was like, I wanna make it as like original as I can. So he's like, I'm gonna buy some like older those same swings, I wanna do it. It's like, no, there's a reason that they're not there bro. This is so weird He went to New Jersey to an antique dealer and he got a same the same kind of swing

Oh, he brought them there they put them together and he said you know I was very curious about them I like to know the history of the things I buy so I looked up the serial numbers They were the original swan. I knew it. I I wanted cut in so bad, but I was like, I can't. I can't steal the thunder. They came back. I knew it. I knew it. The cat came back.

The very next day. So creepy. So creepy. I remember reading my poem in school. Isn't that cute? That poem's really creepy. It's fucked up. Everybody know that poem.

The cat came back. The thought he was gone. Or but, ugh. I hate it. So it really seems like cursed to be so. No, it just, I've said it like four times. Just going, because it's cursed. It's cursed. And it is.

Well, they also said that, you know, they were like, cool, the original swings. Wait, because objects have a home. Like, and they like get connected to something. So those swings were connected to that place and they found their way back. Call me crazy. You're crazy.

No, I'm just kidding. I mean, I told you. But it's so true. You know what I mean? That's too weird. No, like that should happen. That's real weird. Annie wanted to go antiquing the other day

and I was like literally no. Oh, I love antiquing. No, we'll never have an antiquing. I have so many old-ass cameras and like an old-ass typewriter. Yeah, I know. I have old-ass skulls. I'm so antiquing. You're asking for I know. I have old-ass skulls.

I'm so nasty. You're asking for a haunting. I love a good, nasty. We will never own a fucking antique. Because you know, I'll take care of it. So everybody will be fine. They're beautiful, but I don't know what the fuck is attached to that fucking cabinet. Raise your hand if you love antiques.

See, I see you. So he got the original swings. He also added paddle boats and bumper cars, stages for entertainment. They were only charging a dollar for admission because he was just imagining it like just fun. Just imagine going to six flags for a dollar. Exactly. And then there was like the big Ferris wheel, you know, all that fun stuff.

And it was booming for like three years. And then insurance rates became unmanageable. And with the money he was bringing, good money like in the sense of people were coming. Right. But he wasn't charging a lot. So it was not, right, happening with the insurance. And for a place like that, can you imagine what the fucking insurance was? And so he had to close the park.

Now, so not wanting to just get rid of the place because they bought this land and they know they brought the swings back. And it was really important to them to do something with it. So the family just decided they were like, you know, we have a ton of water on the property, like lakes and ponds. Why don't we do like fishing tournaments and shit, like really make it something?

Yeah. They were finding some success with that and they were thinking of clearing some land to start mud bogging, which I was like, what is mud bogging? Is that like racing? Mud bogging, it's like that off-roading in the mud. Yeah. Kind of thing and you have to like clear out mud paths or something. Like little like divots. I don't know. We Massachusetts, we have no idea what that is. So I'm sure some of our like Southern listeners can probably tell us more about that because I think that's like more of a Southern equivalent. I would say because I've never heard of mud bogging.

But no. Sounds kind of fun, I guess. But they were clearing like land out for mud bogging. Okay. And according to Chris White, who is Gaylord Senior's grandson, or Son, excuse me, got it. Because there's Gaylord Senior, Gaylord Junior, and then Chris. Okay. Chris and Gaylord Junior are brothers. See, I know it's hard when they're like,

I was like, wait, I thought they were dead. Wait, what? So this is Gaylord Senior Sun Chris. He told the register heralds, quote, we were bulldozing and we started finding artifacts. Nope, nope, we found arrowheads, pottery, and pots. So we stopped. Good. We said, this is pretty interesting. Let's get someone out here and see what we can do. So in 1988, they brought an entire team of anthropologists

from Marshall University and Concord College, and they extensively dug up the property. And what they found was insane. Oh my god, what they find. So in the same article, Chris White says, quote, they stopped digging when they started finding kids graves. He said, it's crazy. He said that they thought the experts at the end said they thought there was probably around 3000 graves. Shut the fuck up. This property.

I thought you were gonna say like 150. And even then I was gonna tell you where you thought that was. 3,000. What? And he said, quote, 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 in the elderly left. It's sad, but Marshall thinks that that's what wiped out this Shawnee tribe back in the 1700s. Holy cow. So it's insane. So what was happening was when the Shawnee tribe was trying to keep the clay family off this land,

it wasn't because they were living on it, it was because it was a sacred burial ground. Of their great grandparents and grandparents and children, it was a sacred burial ground. Of their great grandparents and grandparents and children. Like a mass of sacred burial ground. Like 3000, they knew that this was, they were like, you can't build on this. I wonder if they told them too, and the family still did it.

Maybe who knows? Well, they were able to get 13 complete bodies out before they were like, we need to stop because we don't want to just create this place. Right. The bodies were buried back again in the same graves that they were taken from. Good.

But they were observed and like aged and looked at first. Most of them were children and elderly. So, after discovering this, Chris White and his family, like Gaylord, Senior, and Junior, and the wife's name is jewel all the white families They were like nope and he left everything exactly the way it is because they were like we're not gonna further disturb this We're not gonna start like doing mudding competitions on here like that's fucked up like driving over bodies So thousands yeah, so they were like you know what, they were like, this made it pretty clear

why they didn't want the clearest to settle on this land. So we are not gonna try to respect this. So in the mid 1990s, Gaylord soon, senior and his wife, Jewel and his son, Gaylord Jr. like lived on the property in a house. Okay. Like, cause again, it's a huge property. This is when they were like,

we gotta do something, we have all this land and we don't know what to do with it. So they were like, you know what, people wanna see this place. And that ton of history, why don't we open up for the spooky factor of it? It's an old, because they also just,

they let the land reclaim the amusement park rides. Like they were just like, we just let the nature take over. And just whatever they wanted to do to it, we were just gonna let it have it. That's cool. And so they offered special haunting tours during the weeks leading up to Halloween. Oh my God.

They do like history tours and everything, and they still do it. I love how spooky this is when are we going? I wanna go so bad. And Rona get the fuck out of here? I've so much to do. I guess they're still doing the tours even through Rona, like in a socially distant, like, you know,

you come at a certain time way. Let's do it. I wanna do it. Virginia's not that far. What's Virginia? It would be like, we could drive. I, nine hours drive. I'll drive or something.

I wanna go so bad. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let so bad. Let's go. Let's go. Because these sites wait until I show you the photos. No, like I'm dead ass, let's go. I'm dead ass as well because these photos. I am dead ass as well. I'm dead ass.

I too am dead ass. It's just show our personalities perfectly. I am also dead ass. I feel like no, I'm dead ass. I was like I am also deadass. I'm like, no, I'm deadass. I was like, I too am deadass. Wow. Anyways, back to the show. Oh, I really am a deadass.

So, yeah, so they do these tours and people from all over the world come. They get people from like, Europe coming, exactly. Like, it's crazy. Now, they never say during these tours, which swing, the little girl was hit by the truck on? Good.

But they said, people always know which one it is. Is there like triangle? And they said, they're always drawn to it. They also, they always feel something weird about that. They'll be like, this one swing is like freaking me out. Like, I don't want to be near it. Paranormal groups go there all the time. Oh my god. Look at YouTube.

There's so many. I fell in a rabbit hole watching the other and I have chills just thinking about it. Discovery, travel, and Nat Geo have all done shows there. They've been on the scariest places on earth. The most terrifying places on earth. A crew member for the Discovery Channel show Ghost Lab was actually locked in the old abandoned ticket booths,

but it didn't have any locks. She just couldn't get out. What the fuck? And they said the door was just a push door. You just push it open. There was no lock. And she was forcing and couldn't get out. That's so scary.

When they finally were able to get her out, she was such a wreck. They had to bring her to the hospital. Oh my God. Like she was that. Like she almost had a heart attack. Yeah. And everyone who goes here says that the vibe

at this place is sickening. Okay, wait, so maybe let's not go because I'm a magnet for like ghost children. Do you remember? And I want to go, we're still going. Oh, I'm glad that you're like gonna just hold me out as a fucking force field. We're still going.

Yeah, we definitely. Do you remember when we did that thing with Tina, my friend. Yeah. We were in the in the car and she was like, oh, like there's like a ghost girl hugging you. Like a little like a little girl's ghost hugging you. And I was like, I don't like it. I don't love it.

And my entire body was like tingling. Yeah. Like I could tell something was going on. You're going to get hugged by many ghost children. As long as they hug me, I hope that's all they do. I don't know if there's a lot of hugging going on here. There's a lot of shit going down. So, scary, scariest places on Earth filmed there in 2005,

but no one, including the crew and the psychic that they bring along with them, would work on the grounds at night because they said the energy was so dark, it was making them sick. Wow. Yeah. So let's go during the day.

I want to go at night. Of course. So do you cycle path? You absolute psycho. Now, the senior Gailor Dwight, he drove a tractor on the property. They'll cut the grass and do all kinds of things for four years. And he said he always felt, like the whole four years, he said he felt like someone was always watching him.

He could feel like pressure on his back and his shoulders a lot while he was driving the tractor and he said he would see a little girl out of the corner of his eye a lot and then she would just disappear. Oh I just got chills. Then one day he kept seeing her out of the corner of his eye and he said suddenly she appeared right behind him on the back of the tractor. Oh fuck. He immediately jumped off the tractor, turned it off, jumped off the tractor. I was like, I should say, turned it off. And he was like, okay, you can have the tractor if you want it.

Like he literally was like, do you want the tractor? Is the tractor just you? And he got off, left it in the middle of the property, and it still stays there today. I knew it! This was from the 90s, and he even moved a giant boulder in front of it in a barrel next to it to make sure it never got moved. Incredible. Because he was like, and he said he was like she seemed like she liked the tractor so she can have it. That's so I feel that I love this family. Isn't it amazing? Yeah. People will hear children laughing on these YouTube

videos of the paranormal investigations. You often hear giggles in the video. Oh, no, that gives me so many Blair Witch products. It's a lot. Oh fuck. People here in Native American chanting often. People who, people do swim there sometimes like they're not supposed to. It's not recommended. Because you'll literally drown.

Yeah. But when they do, people say they feel like someone's trying to drown them, like pull them down. And there's another story about that later. I'm just like, sorry for the silence, I literally just stared at a lady. I always get, I wish you could see the visual that just happened. She was like, whoa. No, people will smell like concession stand food. That's cool.

That's cool. Concession stands are still operating and everybody sees shadow figures. Of course. Shadow figures are everywhere and especially one riding the Ferris wheel. They see that a lot. I mean, it just likes to have a good time, you know? Airship music will play from the rides.

Like music will just suddenly turn on. You and Carnival music is so fucking creepy. To the dictative. In fact, I am going to put our creepy Patreon music in the studio. You have to. Because it just fits the vibe so well. And sometimes people will hear voices

having conversations with each other and no one's around. A local historian, this is where the drowning thing comes back. She was the one who was the one who found out about the, I think the two drownings that I discussed earlier. She was the one who told during, I think, the dead files that show, not quite positive, but she found out about those two found the like newspaper clippings and all that. She said she went to

the amusement park, the original one when she was younger. Oh, she said she remembers being in one of the ponds, like the pools, and she said she remembers vividly a hand grabbing her leg and trying to drown her. And she said she could feel it. No one was down there. She couldn't see anyone, but she said she was being dragged under the water

and her dad had to literally pull her out by her hair. No. And she said, like, she was like, I almost drowned. I would have drowned it. My dad wasn't there. Oh my God. And she said when she heard about the drownings She her first thought was what grabbed them and pulled them under whoo. Yeah, didn't that do you like the chili willies? Yeah now Several psychics and mediums also say that when they go near the water around this place that it just

Repels them or make some sick like they immediately get like and I don't know how much I believe about like that stuff. Like, yeah, I'm one of those people that like, I don't know, but I'm willing to give the thing of the doubt. Think of like how we felt at Lizzy Borden's house in that one room. I literally was like, I need to get the fuck out of here right now. I believe in feeling the darker because I felt it in the Lizzy Borden. And it was not sure. One specific room that made us feel even worse. And this is one of those scenarios when they say they feel like we're

pelt by that water and like sick by it. I believe that. Yeah. Like I definitely believe that. Some of it, I'm like, I get angry with you. Something is sinister in the water. Yeah. For sure.

Something's going on there. Gaylord Jr. said it was common to see the swings, especially just like creaking and moving on their own, like with no wind. Okay, wait, so now that you say, I feel like I've seen this place on one of the scariest shows. Probably. I feel like I can picture it now. Yeah, you probably can. He told the travel channel, quote, start to move underneath your hand until you feel cold air blowing through the seat. And when you get to the middle, you feel something warm.

And we believe that's that little girl spirit who died on the swings. Oh, good. Yeah. He also said he saw a full body apparition of a girl covered in blood wearing a pink roughly dress. Oh, see, that makes me sad. He said she just stared at him. And he was like paralyzed.

Didn't know what to do. Didn't move. Didn't say a thing, and then she just walked away. What the fuck? And he said it was like the scariest thing he's ever seen. Oh my God. One YouTube video that I got like really sucked into was this person called Chris Star.

And she seems to have like a lot of cool like paranormal videos. I was just like, oh, she's kind of fun. Cool. So she's kind of fun. So go check her out. I know nothing about her. So it was a cool video and I was like,, oh, she's kind of fun. Cool. So she's kind of fun. So go check her out. I know nothing about her. So it was a cool video.

And I was like, she sounds fun. She did a paranormal investigation of this site. And they got a ton of weird shit on film and audio. Little kids giggling, faces in windows. You could clearly hear mumbling and talking on the tapes. Yeah. They would be talking. And you could hear somebody be like Next to the thing it was so creepy. That's what I that's what I'm gonna do when we go

At one point in the video, they're like looking at this weird decoration someone put up and they were laughing at it Because you were like this is weird don't do that. They started laughing and you hear a little girl giggle with them Oh, okay, so she's like, oh, well, that's funny. Like girl, yeah. I wouldn't laugh at shit there. Yeah, it's really creepy. Now, like I said, all the rides are still up. They're all decrepit and creepy.

That's so cool. The earth is reclaiming them. Like there's vines and just like all this stuff. Like it's, it looks like it would be breathtaking. You know what? I think you told me about this a long, long, long time ago. Oh, yeah. And showed me pictures.

I probably did, because I've been obsessed with this for a while. I just wanted to say. I think it was you. I wanted to make sure it was a full-blown episode. So Gaylord Senior and Junior both passed away while they were living on the property. R.A.P. Senior died of colon cancer and he died like old. You know, I think he was like in his 80s,

not that that's okay though, but it's like, no, I see what you mean. Junior died of a massive heart attack in his early 50s. Jewel the mother, so Gaylord Senior's wife. Yes. She said he had suffered, are you ready? 26 heart attacks while living there. Holy shit, and he died of one massive one.

But I believe that though, because you're probably just getting scared constantly. Because she says, like, they don't have all this weird shit happening. And, you know, they're on a fucking Native American burial ground. Yeah, like, of course, some shit's gonna happen. They're barely so pissed. They are not happy spirits. These are pissed off spirits. Right. Now, psychics visiting the property did say that sinister spirits there could, they said they've been known to cause health issues

in people. Oh, so they said heart problems. Well, they said heart and like living on the property. And so they said heart problems from someone living on the property didn't surprise them. Yeah. Like it's awful. It makes sense. Now in 2014, Jewel and her son, Chris, decided they were going to start running the dark carnival attraction. Oh. Now, and it's called that. It's like a haunted ghost tour with history and, you know, like a campfire kind of feel to it. Yeah, yeah. You get to see the rides and you also get to see the clay's children's graves. And they basically said they wanted to keep going in the same vein of like Gaylord Senior and Junior's like passion for this, like that they wanted to keep it going, but they wanted to keep the history alive while also trying to be respectful in a way.

It's so weird though that when you're going on these tours, like yeah, you get to go see the grave, but you're also like walking on graves. You're walking on a mass grave. Like you're probably walking on multiple bodies at once. Oh, one hundred no matter what. Yes, you definitely are. Yeah, nuts.

Visitors say that they will be like shoved sometimes. Oh my God. They're touched. They'll hear things a lot in their ear. This is a real ass haunted house. It really is. And Jules said that, and this was so, so I was like, oh, Jules said that at first she was worried that after her husband died,

that she wasn't running the property how he would want her to. Like she was very concerned about keeping it how he would want it. But she says the one thing that made her feel like, okay, he's like, gave me a sign was as she saw a security video. And you can find the video somewhere. I'll have to find it. And it's the Ferris wheel in the middle of the night. And in the video, you can see the safety lock. I know that's kid. The shit on me too. What was that? The door the front door. Yeah, but it must have been John because he like angrily slams it even when he's not

at all angry. Yeah, like whenever John walks out of our back onto the patio, like the whole house shakes. Like yeah, he can jauntily walk out onto the patio and it's like he's so loud. I just shout essentially. Yeah, he's really scary. So in the middle of the night, the security video shows the Ferris wheel and it shows the safety lock on one of the carts like open by itself. Yeah. Like close and open like somebody got on it and somebody got off it. Yeah. And she said her husband was so obsessed when they were running the amusement park that that particularly about the Ferris wheel and making sure the locks were always working properly. Because she was like, he was so concerned about safety.

He always really wanted to make sure that Ferris wheel was okay. And so, she was like, I feel like that was him hanging out on the Ferris wheel and being like, oh, it works. I love that. She still lives on the property by herself. No, girl. And her son, Chris, says he'll come down there in the middle of the night because she'll like call with some scared shit.

Obviously. He said his father wanted to keep the land safe for the living and for the dead and he wants to keep this going with his mother. Wow. Jewel told the dead files that she once saw a full body apparition of a Native American warrior in her home.

I believe that. Cause she doesn't want you to be there. Well, she said he weirdly didn't feel threatened or scared by him. So maybe he was appreciative of appreciative of that. That was trying to make him keep it like going. And like, oh no. And Chris says he still sees shadows and shit and his peripheral while he's working on the site.

He says that he'll feel touched a lot on his back and his shoulders. And he says it can't be explained away because No one's allowed on the site without permission. So it's not like you're seeing people just walking around like no one's walking around these acres Right and his son jewels grandson who is adorable by the way He's like got to be like 12 or 13 He said he often feels like someone's following him on the property when he works with his dad and he said when he stops, he always hears two steps behind him. Oh shit.

And he said once he was by the swings and he felt someone like grab both his arms like to his sides, like they were stopping him in his tracks, like a big person stopping him. And he said he didn't feel threatened by that. He said he felt like he believed it was someone stopping him because there was a bad spirit in front of him. Oh wow. Like he said, the overwhelming feeling was this person was grabbing me by the arms to be like, stop in your tracks,

which is something bad is up there. Oh wow. And he said he felt like protected by it. Oh, it just like gives me the goosey bumps. I'm like, goosey bumps. And then as a last thing I just wanted to know was I saw this weird news segment about it while I was researching.

Of course, we love the weird news segment. They called it a happy haunt. And I thought, I don't know about that. I was like, yeah, totally. Everything we've talked about today seems like a sad haunt. Like a massacre in tragic deaths of several innocent children really doesn't result in a concrondent. It's like on chronicle later. It's like soul crushing darkness and sadness, but okay

Yeah, it's a little crushing and darkness, huh? It's like sometimes the news is silly so That is the amusement park at Lake Shawnee in West Virginia. I want to go, but I don't want to go But I do we are going we are go. We are gonna film that shit It's gonna be totally legendary Oh, and I can't wait it looks amazing if you guys have been there totally let us know damn cuz shit looks awesome Go live near there. Yeah, exactly. Go on YouTube. You can find all those paranormal videos

They're really fun to watch and And if you can find like the, you know, all the, there's been many shows that have gone there all the ghost hunting shows. So I love it. Yeah, so that was it. Good job. Woo, thanks.

Well, as always, you can follow us on Instagram. You're gonna wanna see these pictures. Yes, at morbid podcast. Someone on Twitter, a morbid podcast. Send us a Gmail morbid podcast at gmail.com. If you become a Patreon, you can check out the Patreon email there

to send your pasta dinners. Yes. And oh, go buy some merch. There's gonna be new stuff at shop.morbidpodcast.com. Really excited about it. And we will do, we're gonna be resuming Patreon shoutouts next week. So be on the lookout for that.

We hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it. We're, but that's where the biologist landed. It's like not your land, and you shouldn't have bought it back in the day. And then it's like, oh, your kids are all dead. And that's not good.

And then they're buried on the amusement park ground. Like yikes, don't love that. And then everybody dies at this amusement park RIP all of the little children. But then keep it so weird that you go and you keep the land safe for everybody. Yeah, bye. Jesus. Oh.

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