The I4 Dead Zone: The Most Haunted Highway in Florida
They say that as you drive down this quarter mile stretch of road in Sanford, Florida you can see orbs of light crossing the highway. Some people have even have reported seeing hitchhikers, but when they stop to pick them up, no one’s there.
This short section of road is known as the I4 Dead zone and it’s where people have been reporting hauntings since the road was built in 1960.
It’s also said to be one of the most deadly sections of the 132 mile interstate that spans across Florida.
But why? What about this section makes it more haunted or deadly then the tragedy of traffic that happens around the Disney exits?
Origins of the I4 Dead Zone Curse
Digging into the history of the area, I learned that in 1870 Henry Sanford purchased a bunch of land, like 640 acres on the shores of Lake Monroe. He wanted to sell it to European immigrants to make a catholic community. He got Father Swembergh, a resident pastor assigned to the Orlando area.
After selling a few of the plots, they put a railroad in hoping that it would draw even more people to the area… but it didn’t. Not because the area was bad, but the timing was bad.
In 1887, two years after the St Joseph’s Catholic community was founded, Yellow fever, AKA Yellow Jack, began making it’s way through Florida. Starting in Key West, it moved into Tampa because Italian fruit vendors were buying fruit from the Caribbean, where yellow fever was more common.
People back then associated yellow fever with the warmer months, but that’s about all they knew about it. What we know now is that it’s spread by mosquito bites, from the Aedis Aegyptii mosquito, which is the same one that spreads Dengue fever today.
So the fever, by way of mosquito, made it’s way from Tampa to the St Josephs community on the outskirts of Orlando and infected 4 people. Now that might not seem like a lot for a community, but there were only 4 families in this community and all 4 people were in the same family, an infected mosquito probably got into their home at night and bit a buncha people.
Seeing that this family had 4 people who had gotten the fever, and not knowing what caused it, the other 3 families packed up and left... leaving this last family in the mostly abandoned community.
They called for the local pastor to come and give the dying their last rites, but the Father never showed up. He was called to Tampa to help that pastor give last rites to those dying in Tampa a few days before. Sadly, both pastors caught the fever and passed away in Tampa.
Just to be clear- last rites are usually given to Catholics as they are dying, not once they’re dead. It’s so their burden of sins can be forgiven before they leave this earth. But being around infected people who are on the brink of death is dangerous, especially when you don’t know how to protect yourself from catching the disease or infection.
Either way, this last family decided that they needed to leave the area too, and ended up burying their dead just north of the railroad tracks, in the woods. They put up some wooden crosses, and then packed up and left the area.
From Farmland to Haunted Legend
So after the area was abandoned, the land changed hands a few times. It was cleared out and made into farmland by a guy named Warren… well everything but a little island where the 4 crosses were. He put some wire fencing around the area to section it off. Then he sold the property to Albert Hawkins, who built a house on the edge of the cleared land.
Having 7 kids, there were a lot of toys in the Hawkin’s house and they would notice that toys would randomly move around the house. And it was’t just once that this had happened. It was multiple times.
One day Albert was out walking around the field and came across the ‘burial island’. Not knowing anything about them, he removed the crosses, which were pretty rotted by then.. they’d been up for like 25 years and were only made of wood….
That night, a fire started in his house. Being superstitious- i mean who wouldn't be when you have toys randomly moving around your house- the only thing that they could think of that could have randomly caused a fire, was angry spirits. He'd removed the crosses on the graves and his wife made sure that he put the crosses back up.
Over the next 50 years or so, Albert would rent out sections of the field to other farmers but each time he would tell them, “don’t mess with the graves”. He probably even told them what happened to him when he messed with them.
So one day, one of the farmers decided that he didn’t believe in the superstitions and he wanted to clear the area. He decided to start by removing the wire fence that was around the grave sites. But it wasn’t more than a day later before his house caught fire and burnt down to the ground.
So let’s fast forward to the 1950’s.. the area is decently built up into a city. It’s no longer just woods, but there are still patches of woods and fields. One of the areas that were left as woods was around the gravesites located close to the edge of Lake Monroe.
One afternoon a little boy was out playing in the area and had the genius idea to dig up the graves. He started digging, but then it was getting close to dark, and he needed to get home. The next night while the boy was out, he was struck by a drunk driver and died due to his injuries. the driver was never identified or caught.
It seems like every time someone messes with these graves, something bad happens to them…so the locals named the area the Field of the Dead.
Around this time the government was giving away free money to build interstates around the country, so Florida decided to build one from Tampa to Daytona. By then, Albert had been dead for about 10 years and his widow sold the property to the government hoping that the road and Walt Disney World would bring more life to the area.
Soon people came out and marked up the land where the road will go, and noted that the graves are in the way and will need to be relocated prior to construction.
No biggie.
But when construction actually started in the area, someone made the brilliant decision that these graves weren’t important enough to waste time on… I mean it’s not like they were Indian burial grounds or something…
Let’s set the scene a bit here.. it’s September 1960 and a big ass Hurricane called Donna is starting the hit the Keys on the bottom tip of Florida. Being Florida, we’re used to hurricanes, so work doesn’t stop until the winds and rains are a bigger concern than the daily thunderstorms we get.
So the dump truck shows up with a full load of dirt to start filling the area and bringing it up to grade. According the to the legend, that day, September 11, Hurricane Donna, which was supposed to go up the west coast of Florida and into Louisiana, made a right turn at Tampa and headed right over the grave sites. The eye of the storm passed within 10 miles of the actual graves. Coincidence?
Fast forward to 1963, the day that the Lake Monroe section of I4 officially opened. An eighteen wheeler hauling frozen shrimp is driving east down I4, just cruisin, when all of a sudden as it’s approaching the St. John’s Bridge, it looses control and jack knifes. The legend says that the driver of the truck didn’t make it, making him the first victim of the dead zone.
What caused the driver to loose control of the truck? Who knows… locals say that it was the ghosts of the 4 people who’s graves were buried under this section of the road. That they are trying to get people’s attention or take revenge on drivers of the road that covers their graves.
Locals say that this small quarter mile stretch of the 132 mile interstate is the most deadly with around 2000 crashes since 1963... which sounds like a lot until you think that 1963 was 61 years ago...that's like 32 crashes a year.. not deaths.. just crashes.
But in 2007, the department of transportation reported that there were 440 crashes in this area between 1999 and 2006. Note again that this is the number is crashes, not deaths. Then in 2010, the East Regional Planning Council did a presentation about the I4 dead zone. They said that between the years of 2006 and 2008, there were 22 crashes and only 2 of those resulted in death. They went on to compare this area to other more popular areas, which had higher numbers of crashes and high numbers of deaths.
But people like to play with numbers to make things sound more important than they might be. So if you look at each of the areas and take the percentage of crashes that resulted in death, the I4 Dead zone doubles all of the other areas presented, with a whopping 9% death rate….of 22 crashes… that’s 2 deaths in 3 years. But it sounds really higher when I said it was double the other areas, didn't it? And even the 9% doesn't sound too shabby...
Even if the ghosts of settlers aren’t causing the accidents and it’s just a matter of heavy traffic and human error, it still doesn’t explain why people report their cell phones and electronics malfunctioning.
People say that as they’re driving through the area, talking on their phones, they will hear a third voice on the phone for a short moment. Could this just be a case of signals being mixed up?
Maybe.. but there’s theory that cell phones can be influenced by the earth’s magnetic changes and there is a high level of magnetism in the area. But this would have only been even remotely possible with older cell phones that had a magnetic hard drive. Cell phones now have a sold state drives, which don't use magnets. But again, all based on theory.
Let’s say that one night you’re driving down the road, you’re heading east towards sanford and as you approach the bridge, you see a girl walking along the side of the road. As you pass her, you decide to give her a lift, so you slow down n pull over to the side. But when you check your rearview, no one's there. You turn around in your seat, still… no one. Where'd she go?
This has been reported by multiple people over the years since the road opened, and no one knows who these ghostly hitchhikers are.
One theory is that they're the ghosts of the people who have died in car accidents here over the years trying to warn people about something, or trying to get their attention for some reason.
Which brings us to the ghost truck that people report. Remember when the road first opened and on the first day there was a shrimp truck that jack knifed? Could this ghost truck be that same truck, stuck in some sort of time loop, replaying itself over and over, but sometimes there is someone else on the road to see it? What do you think?
Speaking of repeating events… the legend of the I4 dead zone claims that Hurricane Donna changed directions when the fill dirt was dropped onto the graves. But that isn’t the only hurricane that the legend claims is caused by the ghosts here. It also claims that Hurricane Charley in 2004 was brought through this area by the ghosts as well. Why? Well, in 2004 the St Johns Bridge was being expanded to add two additional lanes. More construction in the area around the graves. The legend makes the assumption that the ghosts influence a hurricane to come through the area when there is construction…
Well, they've been doing construction in the area of the graves since the fall of 2023 so what does that mean for this years hurricane season? Hopefully, it’s just correlation to bolster the legend.
Have you had any experiences in the dead zone? I’m sure that I’m not the only one here who would love to hear about it. Drop it in the comments.
And speaking of comments, I put a link to a poll below… do you think we will get another ghost-influenced hurricane this year because of the construction? Yay? Nay?
(click the image to drop your opinion)
Well, I hope that you’ve enjoyed this episode of the Faerellia Files where we talk about all things unsolved and unearthly. I’ll see you next time.
