
A series of haunting images of an abandoned theme park in West Virginia hints at the horrific history of the site.

Lake Shawnee Amusement park was opened in the 1920s by an optimistic businessman, Conley T Snidow, who built a swing set and a ferris wheel and turned the pond into an open-air swimming pool.

Several tragic accidents would hit the park over the years, claiming six lives, including a little boy who drowned while swimming.

Don't stay after dark: A couple stroll through the abandoned theme park in West Virginia

These derelict huts on the site were used for selling tickets to the rides or for selling hot dogs

But the most horrific involved a little girl in a pink dress who using the swing set when a truck reversed down the path, hitting her and killing her instantly.

Eventually, in 1966, the cursed park shut down.

In 1988 an archaeological dig on the site found 13 bodies, mostly children, confirming suspicions that it had been used as a Native American burial ground.

An optimistic entrepreneur, Conley T Snidow, bought the former Clay farm in the 1920s, put in swings and a ferris wheel

The ferris wheel is now abandoned and overgrown but in the 1950s and early 60s it rang with the cries and giggles of children

In fact the site, in Mercer County, not far from Matoaka, was home to a tribe of Shawnee for many years.

But in 1775 the first white settler arrived, with his family.

Mitchell Clay built a farm but clashed frequently with the Indians.

In 1783 a band of Indians killed his youngest son, Bartley, and his daughter Tabitha and abducted his eldest son, Ezekial, who was taken to Ohio and burned at the stake.

Clay took revenge by murdering several of the Shawnee.

This is the pond which was used as an open air swimming pool for years until a young boy drowned in it

This sign tells the grim story of why the land first became haunted after a clash in the 18th century

Mitchell Clay moved into the area in 1775 and built this farmhouse. Eight years later a bloody clash with a Native American tribe led to several deaths

The rest of the tribe, knowing Clay would be supported by the government of the recently independent United States, fled West Virginia and settled in Kansas.

Nowadays what remains of the Shawnee nation lives mainly in Oklahoma.

Gaylord White, who now owns the land, featured in an episode of the Travel Channel's Most Terrifying Places in America, and said: 'Sometimes the seat of the swing will start to move underneath your hand until you feel cold air blowing through the seat.'

His son said he had even seen the little girl, in her pink dress covered in blood.

'She looked at me and as long as she looked at me, I couldn't move,' he said.

A rusted ferris wheel in the abandoned Lake Shawnee Amusement park in West Virginia. It was once gaily painted

When the ferris wheel was erected in the 1920s it would have been hugely excited for local children, who had probably never seen one before

This is the rusted swing set where the little girl in her pink dress met her death. Her ghost has been spotted on site recently

A child's toy has been left on the rusted swing set, which is now almost 100 years old

A rusted tractor sits idly on the site of the abandoned Lake Shawnee Amusement park in West Virginia

This sign, erected on the site 30 years ago, gives an indication of what happened on the site in 1783, when white settlers moved into the area and clashed with the indigenous Shawnee tribe

The entrance to the abandoned Lake Shawnee Amusement park in West Virginia. The site attracts paranormal investigators

A rusted slide on the abandoned Lake Shawnee Amusement park in West Virginia. The site is reputedly haunted

The former Clay farm featured on a recent episode of The Most Terrifying Places in America

The ferris wheel operated on the site for 40 years. It is not known if any of the accidental deaths occurred on the ferris wheel