Florida evokes sunny beaches, thrilling amusement parks, and energetic nightlife, but the Sunshine State is not just about joyful vacation moments; it also has its share of a dark past. America is famous for its spooky ghost tours, and apart from being home to the South’s most haunted small town, Florida also hides some uncomfortable realities. Stretching for a quarter mile in Sanford, Florida, along Interstate 4 — a 132-mile highway that connects Daytona Beach and Tampa — is a haunted section of roadway known as “The Dead Zone.”
This section of I-4, located just 30 minutes away from Orlando, is said to be a cursed road where many drivers have met a tragic end or found themselves in unspeakable circumstances. “People are claiming to see all kinds of things — orbs floating across the highway, apparitions on the side of the road hitchhiking, phantom trucks, you name it,” said Charlie Carlson, a Sanford native, historian, and author specializing in paranormal activity, as published by News6.
The day the road opened to drivers in 1963 — built atop a graveyard — a truck transporting frozen shrimp veered off, with the driver becoming the first victim of the I-4 Dead Zone. Since then, other passengers have reported witnessing radio interference, rapid electrical failures, and suspicious strangers on the road. In September 1960, three years before the first road accident, Hurricane Donna struck the state and passed over the same gravesite, prompting Carlson to draw a direct connection between the two events. According to Find By Plate, I-4 is considered one of the most lethal roads in the U.S., with 1.41 fatalities per mile.
History of the I-4 Dead Zone
Moody figure standing on a street at night – David Wall/Getty Images
The Dead Zone’s deaths and accidents seem to be linked to dreadful events that took place at the intersection in the 19th century, prior to when the I-4 was even constructed. Before European immigrants occupied the territory, the land was a desolate expanse brimming with local fauna. In the 1870s, real estate mogul Henry Sanford — after whom Sanford, Florida, is named — sold 640 acres of land to a group of German settlers who, unfortunately, did not see brighter days due to a yellow fever outbreak that took their lives.
By 1886, a railroad had been built to lure more settlers to the area, but the project ultimately did not come to fruition. More residents died from the disease, and their bodies were buried without a proper religious ceremony (the only priest available died from the fever, too), leaving their spirits to wander, carrying unfinished business. In 1905, Albert Hawkins, Charlie Carlson’s grandfather, acquired the land around the cemetery plot disturbing the dead; consequently, his house was destroyed by a fire. Later, the government bought Hawkins’ farmland to construct a highway without removing the bodies, leading to today’s unfortunate events.
Does all this represent the truth, or is it the result of a vivid imagination? According to Mark Muncy, author of “Freaky Florida,” the story holds a bitter resentment for the land (via News6). Carlson’s father never forgave the government for taking his land, and he passed the grudge down through generations. Whether this might be true or not, we leave it to you. But we all know that legends serve their purpose; otherwise, how would we visit the most haunted destinations in the world?
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Read the original article on Islands.
