Latest / Boozy Banter with Friends / It's All Creepy Sh*t

Transcript

It's All Creepy Sh*t · Boozy Banter with Friends

• 0:18
  Leyla Zmeskal: Hello and welcome to boozy banter,
• 0:20
  Diane Black: With friends.
• 0:21
  Leyla Zmeskal: I'm Leyla,
• 0:22
  Trisha Smith: I'm Trisha,
• 0:23
  Diane Black: I'm Diane,
• 0:24
  Leyla Zmeskal: Grab your favorite spirit and join us because shits about to get real.
• 0:37
  Leyla Zmeskal: Hello,
• 0:43
  Trisha Smith: Hello, your enthusiam.
• 0:44
  Leyla Zmeskal: It's ridiculous,
• 0:45
  Trisha Smith: As always.
• 0:46
  Leyla Zmeskal: I mean there's some things you can just guarantee that I'm gonna do.
• 0:51
  Trisha Smith: But it always shows you're just so happy to here.
• 0:53
  Leyla Zmeskal: I am happy to be here,
• 0:56
  Trisha Smith: Me too,
• 0:56
  Leyla Zmeskal: I do, I love doing this.
• 0:58
  Trisha Smith: You know who's not here?
• 0:59
  Leyla Zmeskal: Diane.
• 1:00
  Trisha Smith: I know, she's not here cuz she's working.
• 1:03
  Leyla Zmeskal: So you want me to imitate Diane?
• 1:04
  Trisha Smith: Don't do it.
• 1:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: I will.
• 1:08
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, no, go ahead.
• 1:10
  Leyla Zmeskal: How is everybody today? Well, That was Diane by the way in case anybody was curious.
• 1:17
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 1:18
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's my interpretation of Diane.
• 1:22
  Trisha Smith: Well,
• 1:23
  Leyla Zmeskal: Well,
• 1:24
  Trisha Smith: Well
• 1:24
  Leyla Zmeskal: Well.
• 1:25
  Trisha Smith: Exactly.
• 1:26
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yes.
• 1:29
  Trisha Smith: We love her non the less.
• 1:30
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, so we have a little bit of Diane with us today. So how are you doing?
• 1:37
  Trisha Smith: I'm good.
• 1:40
  Leyla Zmeskal: You almost said, well.
• 1:44
  Trisha Smith: Never!
• 1:45
  Leyla Zmeskal: Never, I refuse to say the W word.
• 1:48
  Trisha Smith: I'll forever be good?
• 1:53
  Leyla Zmeskal: I am actually not too terrible today. There's a couple reasons why,
• 1:59
  Trisha Smith: Why?
• 2:00
  Leyla Zmeskal: We're recording.
• 2:01
  Trisha Smith: Yay,
• 2:02
  Leyla Zmeskal: We're recording and we are
• 2:05
  Trisha Smith: Day drinkin.
• 2:06
  Leyla Zmeskal: Day drinkin. Love day drinking.
• 2:10
  Trisha Smith: I do too.
• 2:11
  Leyla Zmeskal: It's so good.
• 2:13
  Trisha Smith: I only get to do a once a week with you.
• 2:15
  Leyla Zmeskal: I know.
• 2:16
  Trisha Smith: And Diane, sometimes.
• 2:17
  Leyla Zmeskal: And Diane, yeah, yeah.
• 2:19
  Trisha Smith: Or if I go on vacation.
• 2:21
  Leyla Zmeskal: I mean that's like a staple though.
• 2:22
  Trisha Smith: Right, right.
• 2:23
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like you have to day drink if you're on vacation.
• 2:25
  Trisha Smith: You really do, but we've learned how to day drink properly.
• 2:28
  Unknown: We have.
• 2:29
  Trisha Smith: So our vacations will be completely different now I think.
• 2:33
  Leyla Zmeskal: I think they will. In fact earlier we were just talking about when's our next little excursion?
• 2:39
  Trisha Smith: I know we've got to start some planning.
• 2:41
  Leyla Zmeskal: We do.
• 2:42
  Trisha Smith: I'm ready. I'm ready to go out in the world and vacation.
• 2:48
  Leyla Zmeskal: Go out into the world. I'm ready to shed this cocoon of mine and be free in the world and frolic around.
• 2:57
  Trisha Smith: Exactly, my eyes.
• 2:59
  Leyla Zmeskal: That was a lot just then. Even I was like Oh, that was a lot.
• 3:02
  Trisha Smith: Now I'm tired, from the frolicking.
• 3:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh my god, can it be your drink that's making you tired?
• 3:11
  Trisha Smith: It could be, I am drinking. What am I drinking? I am drinking Tennessee Shine Companies Smores Whiskey
• 3:24
  Leyla Zmeskal: Sounds really good actually.
• 3:27
  Trisha Smith: It sounds really sweet. Like just the name will give you a cavity, you know.
• 3:34
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like Smores do.
• 3:35
  Trisha Smith: Right, but this one is, you know, remarkably good. It's not as sweet as I thought it would be, it's got a nice like caramel finish to it.
• 3:43
  Trisha Smith: But, I was drinking it straight.
• 3:52
  Leyla Zmeskal: I mean, if it's that good to drink straight, I mean,
• 3:56
  Trisha Smith: It was but you know, we've got a long episode, so I put some ginger ale in it and a little bit of ice and get,
• 4:04
  Leyla Zmeskal: Do the extending.
• 4:05
  Trisha Smith: I did the extending of the drink. And it's very good even with the ginger ale so
• 4:11
  Leyla Zmeskal: Muddle it down a little bit.
• 4:12
  Trisha Smith: Exactly, yeah. So I'm coherent at the end the episode.
• 4:19
  Leyla Zmeskal: You know, it might be a good idea.
• 4:20
  Trisha Smith: Exactly. So I did it and it's still tasty. So it's an option.
• 4:26
  Leyla Zmeskal: It's an option.
• 4:27
  Trisha Smith: What are you drinking?
• 4:28
  Leyla Zmeskal: I am doing a fally drink. We haven't said the word fally in a while so, as we are you know into October, you know my palette is is kind of shifting from the light summery, easy drinking beverages to, I like something with a little spice a little you know, warmth and depth to it. So I am drinking Ghost Coast Ginger Whiskey,
• 4:55
  Trisha Smith: Mmm.
• 4:57
  Leyla Zmeskal: I am revisiting the Haus Spiced Clove Aperitif.
• 5:04
  Leyla Zmeskal: Super fancy. I paired it with a few drops of
• 5:04
  Trisha Smith: Fancy.
• 5:07
  Trisha Smith: aromatic bitters, and I did a splash of ginger ale.
• 5:16
  Trisha Smith: Nice. Yeah, sounds good.
• 5:20
  Leyla Zmeskal: It is, it's nice and fally.
• 5:22
  Trisha Smith: Nice, yeah, I'm really into the fall drinks right now.
• 5:26
  Leyla Zmeskal: I am too, I think that you know, it's all seasonal,
• 5:30
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 5:30
  Leyla Zmeskal: And I think having a little bit of a warmer, deeper kind of cocktail kind of helps you have that mindset of fall even though in Florida.
• 5:40
  Leyla Zmeskal: It's not fall.
• 5:44
  Trisha Smith: It's still so hot.
• 5:44
  Trisha Smith: I can just drop drop the air conditioning down just a little bit so we're extra chilled inside.
• 5:53
  Leyla Zmeskal: I mean,
• 5:53
  Trisha Smith: The only way we're gonna get fall weather.
• 5:56
  Leyla Zmeskal: It's not boot weather down here. Still walking around a damn tank top. It's hot as hell.
• 6:02
  Trisha Smith: So hot, but you know what? It's at least fall.
• 6:05
  Leyla Zmeskal: It's at least fall.
• 6:06
  Trisha Smith: We're surrounded with decorations,
• 6:09
  Leyla Zmeskal: Got my Halloween stuff up. I see people in my neighborhood have decorated for Halloween so that makes me smile every time, I drive by, and more people in the neighborhood have decorated for Halloween this year than ever before. Like last year I was the, I think there was one other person that did like put out a few headstones.
• 6:26
  Leyla Zmeskal: But this year there are quite a few people that have decorated for Halloween and that just makes me smile.
• 6:34
  Trisha Smith: Right, I wonder if they're hoping for trick or treaters this year?
• 6:37
  Leyla Zmeskal: God I hope not, cus then I'll have to like answer the fucking door for kids. I've always hidden from trick or treaters,
• 6:45
  Trisha Smith: Really?
• 6:46
  Leyla Zmeskal: But, a couple years, I've always spent Halloween hanging out with you.
• 6:50
  Trisha Smith: That's true.
• 6:52
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah,
• 6:52
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, we'll have to do something this year.
• 6:54
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah,
• 6:55
  Trisha Smith: Cuz I got,
• 6:56
  Leyla Zmeskal: I'm at a Halloween party Halloween night.
• 6:58
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, I think I'm taking Donovan. Where are Don and I are talking about taking him to Brick Or Treat at Lego Land.
• 7:08
  Leyla Zmeskal: Whoo. That sounds fun.
• 7:09
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, yeah. So I know, i'm into my Legos, so.
• 7:15
  Leyla Zmeskal: Don't step on them in the middle of the night as your walking around, you'll be cursing those fucing things.
• 7:22
  Leyla Zmeskal: So what are you reading or watching?
• 7:25
  Trisha Smith: I'll you know what? We had talked about this before. We had an episode about BuzzFeed Supernatural and, is it Unsolved?
• 7:38
  Leyla Zmeskal: Unsolved.
• 7:40
  Trisha Smith: Unsolved Supernatural.
• 7:42
  Leyla Zmeskal: It's a mouthful,
• 7:43
  Trisha Smith: Right. And they have been I mean, it hasn't been on for a while because they've been doing just the, Unsolved.
• 7:51
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like True Crimes.
• 7:52
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 7:53
  Leyla Zmeskal: Not that I don't, not that I don't like it.
• 7:55
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, we like that just fine. But we love,
• 7:58
  Leyla Zmeskal: I do.
• 7:58
  Trisha Smith: The supernatural and it's coming back.
• 8:01
  Leyla Zmeskal: I know I'm so excited. I haven't watched that episode yet. Have you?
• 8:04
  Trisha Smith: No, no. And it's not very long this season. It really is a very long time.
• 8:08
  Leyla Zmeskal: So it's only 6 episodes.
• 8:10
  Trisha Smith: Yeah,
• 8:10
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like come on. Did you run out of super spooky places to investigate?
• 8:13
  Trisha Smith: I know.
• 8:13
  Leyla Zmeskal: But it's 6 episodes, come on.
• 8:14
  Trisha Smith: I'm still excited.
• 8:16
  Leyla Zmeskal: They better be like wow episodes.
• 8:17
  Trisha Smith: They better be the most haunted.
• 8:21
  Leyla Zmeskal: The most haunted and Ryan better be the most scared. Shane better be the most,
• 8:29
  Trisha Smith: Skeptical.
• 8:31
  Leyla Zmeskal: Exactly.
• 8:33
  Trisha Smith: Otherwise,
• 8:34
  Leyla Zmeskal: I'm gonna say, when's the next one?
• 8:40
  Trisha Smith: Right, they're just so quick and so funny, and so entertaining to me.
• 8:44
  Leyla Zmeskal: They have such a great chemistry together.
• 8:45
  Trisha Smith: Right? That you know, I can set aside a little bit of time,
• 8:50
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah,
• 8:50
  Trisha Smith: To deal. So yeah,
• 8:52
  Leyla Zmeskal: I'm excited about that. I haven't watched it.
• 8:54
  Leyla Zmeskal: haven't watched that first episode yet, but I'm really, really looking forward to it.
• 8:59
  Trisha Smith: Yeah,
• 9:00
  Leyla Zmeskal: I just have to pick a night actually shut the computer.
• 9:02
  Trisha Smith: I know. It's hard.
• 9:02
  Trisha Smith: It's hard to focus. But yeah, what are you gonna do?
• 9:08
  Leyla Zmeskal: What are you gonna do?
• 9:09
  Trisha Smith: You can do what you need to do to watch that show.
• 9:11
  Leyla Zmeskal: Exactly. I'm excited about that. Yeah.
• 9:15
  Trisha Smith: So what do you have for me today?
• 9:19
  Leyla Zmeskal: Well, today, I have a little story for you,
• 9:24
  Trisha Smith: Right,
• 9:25
  Leyla Zmeskal: It's called the, Lake Shawnee Amusement Park story.
• 9:31
  Trisha Smith: Since we live in the land of amusement parks that's something good too.
• 9:37
  Leyla Zmeskal: So imagine an amusement park that's been abandoned.
• 9:40
  Trisha Smith: Oh,
• 9:41
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like a while.
• 9:41
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like I couldn't imagine that here. Since we live in amusement park land like I couldn't imagine like, Sea World being abandoned.
• 9:51
  Trisha Smith: Oh gosh. Could you imagine how creepy that would be.
• 9:54
  Leyla Zmeskal: That would be super creepy.
• 9:55
  Trisha Smith: With all their aquariums and stuff. I saw some pictures of an abandon,
• 10:00
  Leyla Zmeskal: I was going to say that.
• 10:01
  Trisha Smith: The one in Louisiana after Katrina?
• 10:03
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh, I wasn't gonna say that. I think this is over in like Australia, like someplace that had that giant, great white shark.
• 10:12
  Trisha Smith: Oh,
• 10:13
  Leyla Zmeskal: Do you remember that?
• 10:14
  Trisha Smith: No,
• 10:14
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, there was like this amusement park, or an aquarium that was abandoned and they had this Great White Shark
• 10:19
  Trisha Smith: And they just lef it there.
• 10:20
  Trisha Smith: in it.
• 10:21
  Leyla Zmeskal: Well obviously the Great White Shark wasn't alive.
• 10:23
  Trisha Smith: Oh,
• 10:24
  Leyla Zmeskal: It was just like in the exhibit, but it was like looked alive. So when you came up to it, it was like, creepy.
• 10:33
  Trisha Smith: Do you remember the pictures of Chernobyl and it had the big Ferris wheel?
• 10:38
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yes,
• 10:38
  Trisha Smith: Yeah.
• 10:39
  Leyla Zmeskal: Creepy.
• 10:39
  Trisha Smith: I know.
• 10:40
  Leyla Zmeskal: It's all creepy shit.
• 10:41
  Trisha Smith: Okay, so where's this one?
• 10:43
  Leyla Zmeskal: So some say this one simple amusement park located in Mercer County, West Virginia, is one of the world's most haunted.
• 10:53
  Trisha Smith: The most.
• 10:54
  Leyla Zmeskal: The most haunted places, while others say, it was cursed from the start. And if you want to know where in Mercer County it's in Princeton, just thought I'd throw that little nugget out there Princeton, West Virginia. For those of you are like Yeah, but where in Mercer?
• 11:15
  Trisha Smith: Is Mercer a big county?
• 11:16
  Leyla Zmeskal: I have no idea, Princeton, Mercer County, West Virginia.
• 11:21
  Trisha Smith: Okay.
• 11:22
  Leyla Zmeskal: Lake Shawnee Amusement Park, so.
• 11:25
  Trisha Smith: So.
• 11:26
  Leyla Zmeskal: Let's start, let's start back in the 17 hundred's.
• 11:32
  Trisha Smith: They had an amusement park 17 hundred's?
• 11:36
  Leyla Zmeskal: No, I'm giving you history it, on the land. I'm giving you history on the land because some say it was cursed.
• 11:44
  Trisha Smith: I still cannot, I I'm imagining pioneers, little ball and string amusement park or horse and buggies.
• 12:00
  Leyla Zmeskal: Let's build the fence. Can you put the puzzle pieces together and build this fence? Like that hadn't been like the 1700s edition of amusement park. Let's plant rows
• 12:13
  Trisha Smith: Who can go the fastest? So wrong.
• 12:13
  Trisha Smith: of corn.
• 12:23
  Leyla Zmeskal: I know. I know.
• 12:23
  Leyla Zmeskal: So we're back in the 1700s, when the Clay family emigrated from Europe to settle on a piece of land in West Virginia. Mitchell clay received a large grant from his participation in the war to turn 8 hungers. Eight hungers.
• 12:47
  Trisha Smith: The Hunger Games?
• 12:50
  Leyla Zmeskal: Once you read the story you're like whoo , some shit there.
• 12:54
  Trisha Smith: I volunteer.
• 12:59
  Leyla Zmeskal: No one's volunteering for this shit. Turn 800 acres of land into farmland to make it a home for him, his wife Phoebe, and their 14 children.
• 13:13
  Trisha Smith: Fuck 14! No, thank you, knew that was the amusemen park, his wife. I'm gonna get o this ride one more time. 14 t be exact
• 13:35
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's a lot of times on the ride.
• 13:37
  Trisha Smith: Oh no, thankn you.
• 13:40
  Leyla Zmeskal: I mean, Jeez Louise. Now I'm Oh, Lord. Now during the time where this this particular incident with this family took place. They didn't have 14 children at that time, so I'm sure the 14 children was over their lifetime.
• 13:55
  Trisha Smith: But how old are you having like,
• 13:58
  Leyla Zmeskal: You got to start at like 12, I mean to have 14. I don't know, I'm just saying, they started young back then.
• 14:06
  Leyla Zmeskal: Didn't they?
• 14:06
  Trisha Smith: I guess.
• 14:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: I don't know.
• 14:08
  Trisha Smith: I don't know.
• 14:08
  Trisha Smith: That's too much.
• 14:10
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's too.
• 14:10
  Leyla Zmeskal: That's too, too many. So the land that the Clay's had settled on was once taken away from the Shawnee tribe.
• 14:21
  Trisha Smith: So Indians are involved.
• 14:24
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah,
• 14:24
  Trisha Smith: As you know that's bad.
• 14:26
  Leyla Zmeskal: So you know that nothing that I'm gonna say from here on out is going to be.
• 14:31
  Trisha Smith: Any good.
• 14:31
  Leyla Zmeskal: Any pleasant,
• 14:32
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 14:32
  Leyla Zmeskal: So tribal members warned the family that they were very unhappy and wanted their land back even though they had not been living on that land for decades. Hmm, wonder why?
• 14:46
  Trisha Smith: Because it's haunted.
• 14:47
  Leyla Zmeskal: Keep that little nugget in your brain cus you'll find out later.
• 14:51
  Trisha Smith: Jeeze.
• 14:51
  Leyla Zmeskal: So of course the fate, the Clay family was not going to give the land back and I'm pretty sure Mitchell Clay said, bugger off.
• 15:01
  Trisha Smith: Just like that, bugger off eh. Is he from Canada too?
• 15:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: He's from Europe.
• 15:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: They're European.
• 15:14
  Trisha Smith: Eh.
• 15:14
  Leyla Zmeskal: Eh.
• 15:16
  Trisha Smith: Okay.
• 15:16
  Leyla Zmeskal: I don't know i'm pretty sure you didn't say fuck off ,cuz you know when was the word fuck invented?
• 15:21
  Trisha Smith: I don't know, Diane isn't here to Google it.
• 15:24
  Leyla Zmeskal: Dammit! Someone Google when fuck was at first said and let us know.
• 15:30
  Trisha Smith: Oh my god.
• 15:33
  Leyla Zmeskal: Anyway, back to my story. So one day in August of 1783, eight years after they settled on the land, Mitchell was out hunting, when a small group of Shawnee attacked, killing one of his sons Bartley and his daughter Tabitha and taking his other son Ezekiel.
• 15:54
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, so apparently, you know, Mitchell was like I got to go do some hunting to provide for all you pasal of kids. I need you two to build this fence. And Tabitha, I need to do some laundry because your mom is just constantly pregnant.
• 16:17
  Trisha Smith: Slacking off.
• 16:19
  Leyla Zmeskal: So, the Shawnee like, you know, snuck onto the property, instantly killing like Bartley in the head with a gun.
• 16:29
  Leyla Zmeskal: And then Tabitha heard the commotion and she came running around the corner and she saw like the Indians, like you know, the Shawnee like trying to scalp Bartley. So she rushed over to try to save him. And in the scuffle, she was brutally stabbed herself. So as you can imagine, Mitchell's wife Phoebe was like, out of her mind, like crazy, so she had enough sense to to grab the bodies of Bartley and Tabitha and put them in the bed. And she took the remaining kids and she went to a neighbor's house like six miles away for safety because she didn't know if they were going to come back and you know, try to kill the rest of the family.
• 17:14
  Trisha Smith: Now, at this point, she's realized Ezekiel is gone too. Right?
• 17:20
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, she realized that Ezekiel is is gone and she doesn't know if he's still alive or dead or whatever happened.
• 17:30
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 17:31
  Leyla Zmeskal: Okay, so when Mitchell returned home and found the you know, his two children dead in bed, he went to the neighbor's house feeling fearing that the rest of the family had also been slaughtered.
• 17:39
  Leyla Zmeskal: Fortunately, they were not. And then Mike, Mitchell and Phoebe returned to the, to the farm and actually buried, you know, Bartley and Tabitha. And actually to this day, you can still find their marked graves on the property.
• 17:58
  Trisha Smith: Wow.
• 18:00
  Leyla Zmeskal: Kind of crazy,
• 18:01
  Trisha Smith: Right. That's a long time ago.
• 18:03
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like how many years ago?
• 18:06
  Trisha Smith: How many do you have written down?
• 18:09
  Leyla Zmeskal: The incorrect number. I have 100 years which is incorrect.
• 18:16
  Trisha Smith: Over 200.
• 18:18
  Leyla Zmeskal: Damn, finger miss typing.
• 18:24
  Trisha Smith: Those math skills.
• 18:26
  Leyla Zmeskal: Really escaped me. So angered by the death of his children, Michell gathered up other settlers and tracked down the Shawnee, who are responsible for killing his two children and taking Ezekiel.
• 18:38
  Leyla Zmeskal: Unfortunately, the Shawnee split into two groups, after they left the Mitchell's farm, and they traveled different paths. So one morning, like when the the posse caught up with one of the groups that had split off, they attack the Shawnee at dawn, and all were killed, except one at, but he was injured, obviously. But he was like play begging and pleading for his life. So realizing that Ezekiel wasn't there. They were like, furious, and so outraged over the brutal deaths of the two children, that they ended up killing him anyway. But some of the members of the posse took strips of skin and use them as razor straps.
• 19:26
  Leyla Zmeskal: And the worst part is they kept them in their family for a generation as battle souvenirs.
• 19:35
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like how traumatic is that?
• 19:37
  Trisha Smith: You have to wonder which member of their family was like, What is this?
• 19:42
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, what's this? Like? What is this? razor straps? Like, that's where you like, like, oh, man, I don't know.
• 19:50
  Trisha Smith: But yeah, and who decided it was a good idea to get rid of them.
• 19:54
  Leyla Zmeskal: Do they do,
• 19:55
  Trisha Smith: Did they pass the story down? I don't know.
• 19:57
  Leyla Zmeskal: I mean, that's just to me, horrible. However the event not only do we think it's horrible. The event was als pretty horrible to everybod else in is actually was name, The Clover Bottom Massacre.
• 20:14
  Trisha Smith: Wow.
• 20:14
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like it was that,
• 20:15
  Trisha Smith: Has its own,
• 20:16
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah,
• 20:17
  Trisha Smith: Wow.
• 20:17
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, after that Clay tracked down the other group in Ohio where he found Ezekiel had already been burned alive at the stake.
• 20:27
  Trisha Smith: Wow.
• 20:27
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like there's just nothing good happening here, nothing. The chief of the tribe allowed his Mitchell to claim his son's body and then Mitchell brought the brought Ezekiel back to the farm and he was buried with Tabitha and Bartley on the same hill. While it may have been the first violent tragedy to take place on the property, it certainly wasn't going to be the last. Locals say that the trauma of the incident seeped into the land around the Lake Shawnee and it's been haunted by restless spirits, ever since, which you can imagine.
• 21:06
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 21:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: So the land remained quiet until 1926. When see Tate when C.T. Snidow purchased the property and began developing an amusement park. He wanted a place for the local coal miners and their families to relax and enjoy the the park.
• 21:25
  Leyla Zmeskal: The park featured a ferris wheel, circular swings, you know the ones that like spin out like you'll see them at fairs today and,
• 21:32
  Trisha Smith: Right,
• 21:33
  Leyla Zmeskal: A waterslide, a man made swimming pond, complete with canoes. A dance hall, even had a speakeasy for the drunky drunkerton parents. And he also added cabins for overnight stays, so it kind of grew into like a resort which was you know, pretty cool, I guess for that area. So for a little while with so many people coming to the park it looked like it was going to be a success. However, at some point things started to go wrong. And according to, Visit Mercer County dot com, there were a total of six deaths at the amusement park from the time that it opened, to the time that it closed in 1966.
• 22:18
  Trisha Smith: So in 40 years, 6 deaths?
• 22:21
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, 6 deaths.
• 22:22
  Trisha Smith: And that's on the official county website.
• 22:25
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, that's what is with Mercer County dot com.
• 22:27
  Leyla Zmeskal: However, when I was researching like the deaths. I wanted to know like, who the people were.
• 22:34
  Trisha Smith: Right,
• 22:34
  Leyla Zmeskal: I can only find three, which was weird, and one of them was in questionable. Oh, yeah, I didn't find anything on other three. So the first one was a little boy that drowned in one of the pools getting his arm stuck in a drain pipe at the bottom. After that incident, the pool was filled with sand and the people at the park kind of hoped that you know, everything would blow over and things would kind of be forgotten and everybody would just kind of move on. Another little boy drowned in a pool on the property even though there were lifeguards on duty at the time.
• 23:07
  Leyla Zmeskal: While he was swimming with his family. Still, no one noticed he had drowned until he was brushed up against by swimmers on the bottom of the pool.
• 23:19
  Trisha Smith: Where were his parents?
• 23:20
  Leyla Zmeskal: Probably at the speakeasy.
• 23:21
  Trisha Smith: Nobody is watching any of these damn kids.
• 23:24
  Leyla Zmeskal: I guess they figured they had lifeguards. I don't know. But the most famous of all the deaths, is that of a little girl. She was on the swing, when a truck delivering soda to a refreshment stand accidentally backed into the path of the swing, killing the little girl when she was flung against the side of the truck.
• 23:51
  Trisha Smith: Oh my god,
• 23:53
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like how does that happen?
• 23:54
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 23:54
  Leyla Zmeskal: I don't know.
• 23:55
  Trisha Smith: I mean is the truck driver like I just can drive wherever I want.
• 24:02
  Leyla Zmeskal: Do what I want.
• 24:04
  Trisha Smith: No, you can't.
• 24:06
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like why didn't they like deliver the soda when the park wasn't in operation?
• 24:10
  Trisha Smith: Exactly.
• 24:11
  Leyla Zmeskal: I don't know.
• 24:11
  Trisha Smith: Or why wasn't he watching where he was going.
• 24:14
  Leyla Zmeskal: Didn't he have like a spotter?
• 24:16
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, I mean you have to get on and off the swing somewhere. I mean, if they were just standing there waiting for the swing, he would ran somebody over.
• 24:25
  Leyla Zmeskal: Probably.
• 24:26
  Trisha Smith: Oh my god.
• 24:27
  Leyla Zmeskal: So not only was she the most famous death, she's also become the most famous ghost.
• 24:34
  Trisha Smith: Oh,
• 24:34
  Leyla Zmeskal: At the park.
• 24:35
  Trisha Smith: Wow.
• 24:36
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah. Because of the parks deaths. It closed in 1966 and it was left abandoned and the structures that were not sold off are left to left to rot and rust. However, I've also read that that was the deaths weren't the sole reason why the park closed. It was also because they failed a safety inspection.
• 24:58
  Trisha Smith: Safety? Safety.
• 25:03
  Leyla Zmeskal: Your eyes are like, safety, you think?
• 25:08
  Trisha Smith: How about you put as a fence around your ride so that trucks can just back up into the path of a swing? Oh my god,
• 25:17
  Leyla Zmeskal: How about you don't get deliveries during park operations.
• 25:21
  Trisha Smith: Oh, my gosh, that's those other three deaths.
• 25:24
  Trisha Smith: I'm sure they were run over by somebody driving through the park in the middle of the day.
• 25:29
  Leyla Zmeskal: Beep,beep. So my God, so in 1980, Gaylord White, who worked at the park when he was a youngster, purchased the property and reopen the park. He really wanted to recreate the feel of the original park as much as he could. And with that being said, since some of the equipment, like some of the the rides were sold off, he began looking for some, some of the ones that were used to be there.
• 26:03
  Leyla Zmeskal: So he found this swing set in New Jersey and brought it back to the park. Okay, so when he checked the serial numbers on the swing, it turned out to be the exact same swing set that was in the park all of those years ago,
• 26:20
  Trisha Smith: The death swing?
• 26:22
  Leyla Zmeskal: The death Swing,
• 26:23
  Trisha Smith: Oh my God.
• 26:23
  Leyla Zmeskal: The swing that the little girl apparently died on.
• 26:26
  Trisha Smith: No wonder she's haunting the place. She's like, who thought it was a good idea to bring this damn swing back to the park?
• 26:34
  Leyla Zmeskal: Who's to say that shewasn't attached to the swing in New Jersey?
• 26:38
  Trisha Smith: Oh,
• 26:39
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh,
• 26:39
  Trisha Smith: Maybe.
• 26:41
  Leyla Zmeskal: However, unfortunately, even with the death swing, the park didn't last long and it closed again just three years later. Mainly due to like soaring insurance prices and more than likely low attendance.
• 26:58
  Trisha Smith: Right. Right.
• 26:59
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah. So the White's then turned to start holding fishing tournaments and other events to kind of keep the property active and to kind of have a little bit of revenue stream coming in.
• 27:10
  Trisha Smith: Okay.
• 27:11
  Leyla Zmeskal: So while bulldozing land for a mud bogging track,
• 27:17
  Trisha Smith: Fun.
• 27:21
  Leyla Zmeskal: They started finding artifacts, Oh yes, they found arrowheads, pottery, and pots. When they started doing that, they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, let's stop what we're doing. Let's bring someone in to further investigate because this is all a little strange. The Marshall University team spent several years and uncovering artifacts and graves.
• 27:48
  Trisha Smith: Oh my and so that's why they wanted the land back.
• 27:53
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yes. They stopped digging, when they started discovering children.
• 28:00
  Trisha Smith: Oh my god.
• 28:02
  Leyla Zmeskal: The team estimated that about 3,000 bodies are buried there. And maybe some kind of illness caused the Shawnee Tribe to leave except for the kids and the elderly. So those were left behind.
• 28:18
  Trisha Smith: Oh no.
• 28:21
  Leyla Zmeskal: How crazy is that?
• 28:23
  Trisha Smith: Oh my gosh.
• 28:24
  Leyla Zmeskal: So no wonder the Shawnee Tribe was like,
• 28:27
  Trisha Smith: We want our land back.
• 28:28
  Leyla Zmeskal: We want our land back but we're not living there.
• 28:30
  Trisha Smith: Yeah,
• 28:30
  Leyla Zmeskal: We're not living there. But we won't land back, because it was sacred.
• 28:33
  Trisha Smith: Right right.
• 28:34
  Leyla Zmeskal: So, now we have the massacre of the Clay family children, the massacre of the Indians and,
• 28:45
  Trisha Smith: A sacred Indian burial ground because that's where all the haunted stories start.
• 28:49
  Leyla Zmeskal: And we have so far deaths of three children,
• 28:53
  Trisha Smith: Right, potentially six.
• 28:55
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yes, yes. Yes.
• 28:55
  Leyla Zmeskal: Sounds like a winning combination.
• 29:00
  Trisha Smith: Oh my gosh.
• 29:01
  Leyla Zmeskal: So after all of this, of the White family decided to leave everything in its place, and respect the land and the burial ground and they just kind of like, left it there. However, I mean, I guess whenever you have property like that, you have to do something.
• 29:16
  Leyla Zmeskal: So in the mid 90s, it was decided to open the park back up again for ghost tours,
• 29:24
  Trisha Smith: Of course.
• 29:25
  Leyla Zmeskal: And then soon, people from all over came to see the infamous park. It's regularly visited by ghost hunters, psychics and TV shows.
• 29:34
  Leyla Zmeskal: Scariest Places on earth featured the park, as well as, Most Terrifying Places In America, Ghost Lab.
• 29:46
  Trisha Smith: Oh,
• 29:46
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yes and Unexplained.
• 29:50
  Trisha Smith: Wow.
• 29:51
  Leyla Zmeskal: As well as, Jack Osborne's Portals To Hell.
• 29:57
  Trisha Smith: Wow.
• 29:59
  Leyla Zmeskal: In 2021.
• 30:00
  Trisha Smith: Wow.
• 30:01
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, yeah. So there are stories coming from visitors of people getting horrible vibes. Of course, seeing ghost feeling the presence of evil spirits. It's often reported that you can hear children laughing and the sounds of Native American chanting.
• 30:16
  Leyla Zmeskal: People also claim to smell concession stand food, see shadows on the old Ferris wheel.
• 30:27
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, all kinds of stuff. Even the owner of the park has had experiences. He claims to hear the wooden swings creek, even though that there is no wind. He has said sometimes you can feel the seat move beneath your hand and feel cold air blowing through the seat. And in the middle, it is like a warm feeling. He thinks it's the spirit of the little girl. His son has even seen the little girl with her dress covered in blood. He said and I quote, "she looked at me, as long as she looked at me, I couldn't move".
• 31:08
  Trisha Smith: Oh,
• 31:08
  Leyla Zmeskal: Unquote.
• 31:10
  Trisha Smith: She's like, wanna ride my death swing?
• 31:14
  Leyla Zmeskal: Do you want to be my friend? Stay with me, Bobby.
• 31:22
  Leyla Zmeskal: His son is not the only one who's had an experience with the little girl. One day while mowing the grass with the tractor. His father felt a weight on his shoulders, and turning around, he saw the little girl right behind him. He left that damn tractor right where it was and is still in the same spot to this day.
• 31:40
  Trisha Smith: Wow.
• 31:41
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, yeah. One investigator visiting the park got trapped in the old ticket booth. Even though she was trying to push the door open and screaming for help, it would not open. She was so freaked out when she got out that she actually had to go to the hospital for a panic attack.
• 31:59
  Trisha Smith: Wow.
• 31:59
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like that's kind of crazy, isn't it? One psychic that was under contract with one of the networks that were you know, investigating refused to stay on the property because the energy was too strong.
• 32:14
  Trisha Smith: Wow.
• 32:14
  Leyla Zmeskal: And the film crew would not enter the park at night due to eerie feelings, crazy huh?
• 32:21
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 32:22
  Leyla Zmeskal: So after the deaths of her husband and oldest son, Jewel White, with the help of her remaining children, decided to move on from like, they had like campfire tours and history tours to the, Dark Carnival Lake Nightmare Haunted Attraction.
• 32:40
  Trisha Smith: Wow. Okay, let's just give them all the reasons,
• 32:46
  Leyla Zmeskal: All of the things.
• 32:47
  Trisha Smith: To get us.
• 32:49
  Leyla Zmeskal: Although you can still do self guided tours around the swings and the Ferris wheel and visit the graves of the clay children if you like.
• 32:54
  Leyla Zmeskal: If you want to go to the park, it's open during the Halloween time but you can book a tour all year for like a an investigation. It is recommended that you bring a flashlight and you're encouraged to leave an offering as a sign of respect for the Shawnee.
• 33:13
  Trisha Smith: Oh,
• 33:14
  Leyla Zmeskal: Some people leave dolls and small toys at the swing that is marked by a red ribbon. You never know what you'll experience. Maybe the pinwheel attached the box office will move if asked. Which there was a video of like this pinwheel like moving. This woman asked the pinwheel to move and it moved, she has to move faster and move faster. She has to stop and it stopped.
• 33:41
  Trisha Smith: Wow.
• 33:44
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yes, or maybe you'll see the owl ornament adjacent to the swing marked by the red ribbon dance in the breeze and then suddenly stop.
• 33:50
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like a child got tired of the toy and moved on.
• 33:57
  Trisha Smith: Hmm.
• 33:58
  Leyla Zmeskal: Check out the parks website for yourself to see if it's haunted or maybe even cursed. And that is the story of the Lake Shawnee Amusement Park
• 34:09
  Trisha Smith: That is so creepy.
• 34:11
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like there is a lot.
• 34:13
  Trisha Smith: Right, and then it's like can we make it any worse? Indian burial ground!
• 34:20
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, starting with the 1700s. With this family getting attacked and scalped some members of the family getting attacked and scalped by the Shawnee Tibe to the Dad getting all pissed off and then attacking some of them than some of the Shawnee themselves and killing and taking pieces of their skin to use razor straps.
• 34:40
  Trisha Smith: That's horrible.
• 34:42
  Leyla Zmeskal: To children's deaths.
• 34:44
  Trisha Smith: The fiasco of an amusement park.
• 34:48
  Leyla Zmeskal: And then finding that the entire area was built on ancient Indian burial ground.
• 34:55
  Trisha Smith: So crazy.
• 34:58
  Leyla Zmeskal: No wonder It was doomed.
• 35:01
  Trisha Smith: Oh my gosh. This is why you don't go to West What a lovely field of death you have.
• 35:09
  Trisha Smith: Virginia, 800 acres of death.
• 35:17
  Trisha Smith: We tried to tell you.
• 35:19
  Leyla Zmeskal: I tried to tell you to get the fuck off but you wouldn't listen to me.
• 35:24
  Trisha Smith: That was a good one. How did you find that?
• 35:27
  Leyla Zmeskal: You know what was funny is that, that wasn't even the story that I was actually going to tell. Just like the last time with the Bloody McKensey. I was like looking for something else and I came across this and I was like, oh what's this and then I was like, holy shit this is insane.
• 35:45
  Trisha Smith: Oh my gosh.
• 35:47
  Leyla Zmeskal: So I'll tell, I'll tell the stories that I was actually researching another time but this one actually captivated me enough to like want to,
• 35:54
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 35:56
  Leyla Zmeskal: Move forward with it.
• 35:57
  Trisha Smith: Did they close off the area where they found all the bones and,
• 36:02
  Leyla Zmeskal: It didn't say specifically, but I'm imagining they did because at one point it did say that the the White family that still owns the land wanted to kind of respect the land.
• 36:12
  Trisha Smith: Okay,
• 36:13
  Leyla Zmeskal: So I imagine that they.
• 36:15
  Trisha Smith: 800 acres I'm sure they're like.
• 36:18
  Leyla Zmeskal: I don't know if they know, I don't know if it still encompasses that 800 acres or if that was just the Clay family's original land.
• 36:27
  Trisha Smith: Okay, so they could have built a subdivision on top of part of the 800,
• 36:34
  Leyla Zmeskal: Well at one point it was said that's what he want to do.
• 36:37
  Trisha Smith: Wow.
• 36:38
  Leyla Zmeskal: But I guess when they started excavating for the mud bogging track and they started finding things.
• 36:44
  Trisha Smith: Well it just makes me wonder, like 800 acres, even if they don't own the whole thing, like how, maybe it's just not this one area how widespread were all these Indian bones?
• 36:56
  Leyla Zmeskal: Apparently, there was you know tribes all around the area.
• 37:00
  Trisha Smith: Right,
• 37:01
  Leyla Zmeskal: I would imagine, also used them as their burial grounds as well. Yeah, it's just it was a lot.
• 37:08
  Trisha Smith: Yeah,
• 37:08
  Leyla Zmeskal: It was right from the, you know, not only just if you just looked at the story of the haunted amusement park itself with the deaths and it closing down and then someone who used to work there as a kid bought it and you know, wanted to revitalize it, to finding the ancient Indian burial ground, you're like well that's a story.
• 37:29
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 37:30
  Leyla Zmeskal: But then if you go back and you find out that actually this exact same land was owned by this family in the 1700s.
• 37:40
  Trisha Smith: And this happened to them.
• 37:41
  Leyla Zmeskal: And this happened to that and then the father hunted down one of the groups of Indians and murdered t.hem
• 37:50
  Trisha Smith: Did they say how many Indians were in that group?
• 37:53
  Leyla Zmeskal: They said about 11,
• 37:55
  Trisha Smith: Wow.
• 37:56
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, that's what they said was about 11 of them.
• 37:59
  Trisha Smith: Wow.
• 37:59
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah. Crazy and what was really crazy that I read is that at the time of the attack, some guy was like calling on the family like he just happened to be calling on this family. I didn't like write his name down, but he didn't help, he like took the fuck off instead and so like he was like kind of shunned that he just,
• 38:23
  Trisha Smith: Didn't.
• 38:24
  Leyla Zmeskal: Didn't help, he just got freakin scared and like ran away, like a little bitch.
• 38:27
  Leyla Zmeskal: But the damn Phoebe's like, fuck it all got it? I can birth all these freaking kids.
• 38:38
  Trisha Smith: I'm a haul my kids back to their bodies back to my cabin.
• 38:42
  Leyla Zmeskal: I'll take the remaining ones and hike six miles to the neighbor's house.
• 38:44
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, there was a lot.
• 38:49
  Trisha Smith: Yeah,
• 38:49
  Leyla Zmeskal: So of your're ever in West Virginia.
• 38:51
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 38:52
  Leyla Zmeskal: And want to check out the.
• 38:54
  Trisha Smith: Check out this,
• 38:55
  Leyla Zmeskal: Lake Shawnee.
• 38:56
  Trisha Smith: I think it's cool though that they still have it open.
• 38:59
  Leyla Zmeskal: I do. I do too.
• 39:01
  Trisha Smith: Well, I mean imagine all the requests they would be getting otherwise.
• 39:05
  Leyla Zmeskal: Um, you know I want to kind of check out some of these shows that feature this amusement park.
• 39:10
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 39:11
  Leyla Zmeskal: To see like what it actually looks like.
• 39:13
  Trisha Smith: I don't know we should try it. We should look it up.
• 39:15
  Leyla Zmeskal: Because some of them, because they have some of the photos left like the old Ferris wheel and it looks just like rusted. The wife, she did say that. You know her husband and her oldest son were very against like anything Halloween.
• 39:32
  Leyla Zmeskal: Like they didn't want to like commercialize it as like gimmicky Halloween. So she she always wondered what her husband would think, since they got away from like those campfire tours of like, you know, the ghost tours and the history tours. The full blown Dark Carnival,
• 39:53
  Trisha Smith: Right.
• 39:54
  Leyla Zmeskal: But she said that since that there is that dark shadow on the Ferris wheel. Her she thinks it's her husband.
• 40:03
  Leyla Zmeskal: Because I guess her husband always had this thing with the Ferris wheel.
• 40:07
  Trisha Smith: He used to work there.
• 40:08
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, but I guess you were like really, like had this thing with the ferris wheel like he,
• 40:12
  Trisha Smith: I wonder, do you think he worked there when the little girl died?
• 40:15
  Leyla Zmeskal: I don't know it's plausible.
• 40:18
  Trisha Smith: So that could explain why he's obsessed with it.
• 40:21
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, but the swing is where the little girl died on.
• 40:24
  Trisha Smith: Oh, that's right.
• 40:25
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, she died on the swing. But the Ferris wheel like I guess he really liked this Ferris wheel and he was always worried about the Ferris wheel being locked and now that's one of the claims that people say that there is this dark shadow in one of the Ferris like wheel cars.
• 40:42
  Trisha Smith: Wow,
• 40:43
  Leyla Zmeskal: She, she thinks it's her husband kind of like hanging out there. Crazy.
• 40:47
  Trisha Smith: Yeah, just gets better and better.
• 40:49
  Leyla Zmeskal: Yeah, it was. I mean, there was a lot.
• 40:51
  Trisha Smith: All right, well.
• 40:52
  Leyla Zmeskal: If you're ever in Mercer County, want to go visit during Halloween time.
• 40:58
  Trisha Smith: Diane would be like, no.
• 41:00
  Leyla Zmeskal: Oh my god, all you have to say is Indians. Just the word, Indians.
• 41:04
  Trisha Smith: Indian burial ground.
• 41:05
  Leyla Zmeskal: No, I didn't have to be Indian burial ground, just Indian. She's like, Nope.
• 41:11
  Trisha Smith: We'll have to run it past her.
• 41:12
  Leyla Zmeskal: She's like, hell to the no!
• 41:14
  Trisha Smith: I can imagine.
• 41:15
  Leyla Zmeskal: Guess we're not going to take a trip to Princeton.
• 41:17
  Trisha Smith: Guess not. I am going to take a trip back to refill my cocktail.
• 41:23
  Leyla Zmeskal: I think that's a great idea. I'll show you some pictures of the Ferris wheel.
• 41:27
  Trisha Smith: Ah, that sounds great.
• 41:29
  Leyla Zmeskal: Alright, until next time,
• 41:30
  Trisha Smith: Cheers.
• 41:31
  Leyla Zmeskal: Cheers.
• 41:32
  Leyla Zmeskal: Hey, like what you hear?
• 41:33
  Diane Black: Check us out on Instagram.
• 41:35
  Trisha Smith: Or send us a message at boozy banter with friends dot com.
• 41:38
  Leyla Zmeskal: Thanks for listening.
• 41:39
  Trisha Smith: Until next time,
• 41:41
  Diane Black: Late-a.