I-4 Dead Zone

Sanford, FL

The I-4 Dead Zone is a quarter-mile stretch of interstate highway rising above a patch of land in Sanford, Florida, just north of Orlando. The “Dead Zone” nickname was attributed to the location due to numerous reports from motorists telling of their CBs, phones, radios, and other electronic equipment going on the fritz upon crossing the area. Although one might think that these phenomena are strange enough they pale in comparison to the site’s far more sinister history.

Back in 1887, a yellow fever epidemic plagued the site of what was then a small Roman-Catholic settlement, taking the lives of four of its residents, including the priest. Family members without the guidance of their leader of worship chose to establish a small cemetery for the deceased, laying them to rest though unable to perform their last rights.

Later in 1905, Albert Hawkins purchased the plot of land for farming. While clearing the land he stumbled upon the four graves and decided to farm around the site while maintaining the small cemetery out of respect for the dead until his own passing in 1939. Although Mr. Hawkins’s widow told surveyors about what her late husband had found prior to selling the land to the state in 1960, construction began almost immediately and without a second thought, covering the site and its small cemetery with fill in preparation to elevate the land for the new expanse of highway.

As the land was being surveyed for the proposed interstate, Hurricane Donna was passing through the lower portion of the state and reports projected it to enter the Gulf of Mexico where it would ultimately die out, however in a strange twist, just as the desecration of the site began, Hurricane Donna abruptly changed course, tearing through the state as it followed the I-4 corridor, its eye eerily passing directly over the graves. The category 4’s devastation would delay the project for several months and begin a long list of superstitions attributed to the site.

Since 1963 roughly 2,000 accidents have occurred along the stretch of highway hundreds resulting in fatalities. Hundreds of motorists have reported apparitions of wandering hitchhikers, as well as strange, nether worldly voices on their cellphones and car radios just before losing signal.

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