Shawnee State Park is named for Shawnee Creek, a stream which flowed through the area and was dammed to create the recreational lake at the park. The creek was named for the
Shawnee, a
Native American tribe that once lived in many parts of Pennsylvania,
Ohio, and
Kentucky. They were forced from their lands in Ohio and Kentucky by invading Iroquois, the powerful five-nation confederacy based in western New York. Later the Shawnee were forced west out of Ohio by encroachment by settlers of the
Thirteen Colonies. The area surrounding the park was used as a trade route and military road during the
French and Indian War (also known as the
Seven Years' War).
General John Forbes built the
Forbes Road (which the modern-day
U.S. Highway 30 parallels) to send supplies from the ports in
Philadelphia and
Baltimore to a force of British soldiers under his command as he tried to capture
Fort Duquesne from the French in 1758. The lake was declared "full" on March 4, 1951, when water began pouring down the breast of the dam. The first person to drown in the lake was Robert Mowry, age 17, of Schellsburg, on June 28, 1951, only a few months after the park opened. ==Geology==