Shawnee Lake, a 451-acre (183 ha) warm water reservoir, is at the center of the park as its main attraction.

The park's main entrance is just east of Schellsburg, along U.S. Route 30 and about 10 miles (16 km) west of the county seat of Bedford.

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.

[3] The lake was declared "full" on March 4, 1951, when water began pouring down the breast of the dam.

[4] 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.

The park lies at the southern end of Chestnut Ridge, which is a broad, doubly plunging anticline.

There is a centrally located bathhouse with flush toilets, hot showers and a sanitary dump station at the campground.

The common fish are walleye, pickerel, smallmouth and largemouth bass, northern pike, muskellunge, catfish, crappie, yellow perch, bluegill, bullhead, sucker and carp.