Shawnee State Park
132 State Park Road
Schellsburg, PA 15559-7300
814-733-4218

US 30 and PA 96 pass through Shawnee State Park.

Recreational Opportunities

Camping: modern sites, some with electric
The 293 sites have picnic tables and fire rings, and accommodate either tents or trailers. 65 sites have electric hookups. Two campsites are ADA accessible. There is a sanitary dump station and centrally located washhouses with flush toilets, showers and laundry tubs. A camp store sells wood, charcoal and other camping supplies and is open from Memorial Day Weekend to Labor Day. The camping season begins the second Friday in April and ends in late December.

Shawnee Lodge:
Centrally located on an island in the middle of the park, this three-story house offers year-round accommodations with panoramic views of Shawnee Lake and the surrounding countryside. The lodge is ADA accessible and has a modern eat-in-kitchen, one bathroom, living room, sitting room, four bedrooms that sleep eight, porch and yard with firering and picnic table.

Picnicking:
Picnic tables, charcoal grills, water fountains and restrooms are scattered around the park. Five picnic pavilions may be reserved up to 11 months in advance for a fee. Unreserved picnic pavilions are free on a first-come, first-served basis. A picnic pavilion is ADA accessible.

Fishing:
The 451-acre Shawnee Lake is stocked with warm-water game fish. Common game species are smallmouth and largemouth bass, northern pike, walleye, muskellunge, pickerel, catfish, crappie, yellow perch, bluegill, sunfish, sucker, bullhead and carp. An ADA accessible fishing pier is by the Diehl Parking Lot. Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission laws apply.

Boating: electric motors only
The 451-acre Shawnee Lake has three boat launch areas and 183 boat mooring spaces. A boat dock is ADA accessible. The boat concession rents paddleboats, canoes and rowboats during the summer.

Swimming:
The sand and turf beach has modern bathhouses with flush toilets and showers. The beach is open from late-May to mid-September, 8 a.m. to sunset. Lifeguards are on duty from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day, unless otherwise posted. Please read and follow posted rules for swimming when lifeguards are off-duty.

History
Shawnee State Park is named for American Indians who lived for a short time in the vicinity of the park during their westward migration from the Potomac in the early 1700s.

General Forbes camped his army within the boundaries of the park while building the Forbes Road in the campaign of 1758 against the French at Fort Duquesne, Pittsburgh. One can still walk remnants of the Forbes Trail within the park.

The white barn, buildings and houses now surrounded by a lake of water were once surrounded by a sea of grass. These buildings belonged to John Bowman’s “Water Brooks Farm.” John Bowman was president and chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh and was the driving force behind the building of the Cathedral of Learning.