The I-4 Dead Zone — Florida’s Haunted Highway
Each day, thousands of unsuspecting drivers pass over a stretch of highway known to locals as the ‘I-4 Dead Zone.’ This unassuming quarter-mile is said to be one of the most haunted highways in the nation — it’s the site of a failed German immigrant colony and the final resting place of settlers who died during a horrific Yellow Fever outbreak in 1887. It’s said that deadly consequences were in store for anyone who disrupted the burying ground — including the developers who paved over it to build the road and bridge that stands today.
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History of the Land
In the 1870s, a real estate mogul named Henry Sanford marketed the southern shore of Lake Monroe to incoming immigrants and potential citrus farmers. He sold 640 acres to a group of German immigrants who founded St. Joseph’s Catholic Colony. Prior to this, the area was untamed wilderness, with nothing but Floridian wildlife and a hand-operated river ferry.
The land was part of a large grant owned by Henry Sanford, head of the Florida Land and Colonization Company. In 1886, a tiny railroad station was built, and the land was divided into ten-acre parcels to sell off to potential farmers and investors. One of these tenants was a group of Catholic immigrants; their priest, Felix Swembergh, oversaw the settlement.
According to a Central Florida historian, colonization efforts ended after only four families moved to the area. St Joseph’s Catholic Colony never really took off, and in 1887, a Yellow Fever outbreak sealed the fate of the land forever.
The disease killed four members of one of the families, and with the rest of the colonists fearing that the fever was contagious, the bodies of the dead were buried in the woods just north of the railroad. Father Swembergh was called back to the area to perform the last rites of the deceased, but he never returned to the colony. Just three days after arriving in Tampa, he succumbed to the fever, and with his death went the known location of the gravesites.
Some believe that because these people never received their last rites, their souls cannot rest and roam the area, angry at the living. This may explain the bizarre happenings surrounding this stretch of road today.
What’s causing the strangeness on Route 4? Source: Rawpixel
Over the years, the story of the colony became something of a legend. It’s believed that bad luck would befall anyone who tampered with the gravesites. Locals say that a farmer’s house burned to the ground and was reduced to smoldering embers after he removed the grave markers, and later, a child was run down by a drunk driver after he dug around the site during play. Just enough unexplainable activity was occurring to earn the area the grim nickname, ‘Field of The Dead.’
Route 4 is Born
The field was sold to the state when Florida began to purchase land to build a new highway. While the graves were intended to be moved, they were deemed unimportant and forgotten; the field was paved over as if it wasn’t hallowed ground.
Soon after, when fill dirt was dumped on the site, in true Florida fashion, a hurricane ravaged the area. Hurricane Donna changed course, passing over the gravesite on September 10th, 1960, and leaving a wake of destruction in her path.
The flooding caused by Donna disrupted highway construction for months and was the worst storm to hit the interior of Central Florida in centuries. Strange enough as it is, but even weirder is the fact that the hurricane followed an inexplicable path. It had already crossed South Florida from the Atlantic. It appeared to be heading west into the Gulf of Mexico when it eerily changed course and followed I-4 through Central Florida, with the eye of the storm passing over the gravesite just around midnight. Many locals believe that the highway construction tampering with the dead caused the path of Donna.
In 2004, another hurricane named Charley took the same route as Donna and passed over the gravesite — unsurprisingly, construction work was happening around the gravesite when the hurricane arrived.
This was just the beginning of the eerie legacy of the Dead Zone.
Tragedy, Strangeness, and Accidents Abound
The Interstate 4 highway is a 132-mile freeway that runs through Florida. Between Daytona Beach and Orlando lies the Dead Zone, located at St. John’s River.
Follow St. John’s River to the I-4 Dead Zone… Source: Wikimedia Commons
Drivers and visitors to the I-4 Deadzone tell of strange occurrences as they pass over this specific stretch of road. Cell phones are known to pick up voices at the south end of the I-4 bridge in Seminole County. One witness reported that if you’re talking with someone on the phone, the conversation will be interrupted by ‘voices of the dead.’
The section of the road is also infamous for an inexplicable amount of deadly car accidents. On the day the interstate was opened for traffic, a truck hauling frozen shrimp was the Dead Zone’s first casualty. It lost control and jackknifed right above the gravesite.
Frequent deadly accidents are believed to be caused by the spirits of the dead buried beneath the cold cement of the highway.
Other unexplained events include random static on CB radios, cell phones turned off on their own, wispy balls of light flitting above the road, ghostly hitchhikers, phantom voices, apparitions — you name it.
What’s causing all of this? Could it be a case of imagination running wild? Or is it something more sinister? Locals swear that these events are caused by nothing more than the secret buried just beneath the asphalt.
If you’re ever traveling in Florida and find yourself unlucky enough to be passing through the I-4 Dead Zone, be sure to use caution and look twice before changing lanes — you may even see something in your mirrors that you’ll never forget.
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Sources Cited:
Featured Image Source
http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/I-4_Dead_Zone
http://www.weirdus.com/states/florida/road_less_traveled/route_4_dead_zone/index.php
