Haunted Florida: The Legend of the I-4 Dead Zone

To tell this story, I first need to strip away everything you think you know about modern Florida. Take away the nearly 20 million people who reside here and the millions more who flock to the Sunshine State each year.

Obliterate the concrete and pavement that cover acres of ground for miles at a time. There’s no air conditioning, no condos, no swimming pools, and no electricity. All that’s left is something that’s extinct in Florida now:  untouched land.

True, Florida has been inhabited by indigenous peoples for thousands of years, but it wasn’t until 1565 that Spanish explorers discovered the mysterious “land of flowers.” Until then, land and man had coexisted in harmony. After discovery, though, the never-ending attempt to bend the wild Florida landscape to man’s will began and continues to this day.

St. Augustine and other coastal cities popped up and thrived, but only a brave few ventured into the unknown interior. Natives, dense forests, swamps, diseases, and wild animals were dangers that kept most people on the cool and more comfortable coastlines.

In the 1860’s and ‘70’s, things began to change.  By this time, most Indians had been sent to reservations, and the newly constructed railroad lines made the interior easier to access. The interior saw a surge of settlers who wanted to build their lives in the Florida Territory.  Soon, small cities were built, most often beside the many lakes and rivers that make up the majority of the State of Florida.

But it wasn’t only settlers who were seeking a better life in the Sunshine State. Businessmen from up north saw Florida as a fortune waiting to be cashed in.  Then, as now, they saw the profitability of Florida’s weather and natural resources and sought to exploit it to the fullest extent.

One such businessman was Henry Sanford, who was one of the first land developers in the State of Florida. He bought up land in the central Florida area at the mouth of the St. Johns River near present day Sanford. His plan was to build a Catholic farming community.

It’s not that he was a pious man. He had bought a surplus of land he wanted to unload at a huge profit. He split the land into 10 acre plots and marketed it as St. Joseph’s. His plan was to sell them to German immigrants seeking a new start in America. He printed pamphlets that made Florida sound like a promised land with a warm climate that supported year-round planting in fertile soil.  

In the end, Sanford’s idea wasn’t very popular, and only a handful of families bought land and began farming. They eagerly made the dangerous trek to Florida by covered wagons to build their dreams, but it wasn’t long until these German pioneers began fighting an uphill battle against Florida.

First was the heat. Heat in Florida isn’t so much searing as it is stifling. Summer temperatures hover in the middle nineties, but the humidity makes it feel at least 10 to 20 degrees hotter than that. Sweat pours off a person in sheets. If there’s a breeze, it’s at best tolerable. But if the air is still, a cloud of heat hangs around your body like a presence. The New Americans had never felt heat like this.

Before they could even build their farms, though, they first needed to clear land. Cutting through virgin pines, oaks, and palmettos with late 19^th Century tools was slow going. Progress was measured in inches at times, but eventually land was cleared, homes were built, and the business of farming began.

Neither Sanford nor the immigrants knew it, but the community was doomed from the start. Mosquitoes – which some call the Florida state bird - are ever percolating in the still waters of Florida. After a year or so, the mosquitoes brought a deadly disease to their doorsteps that would put an end to St. Joseph’s.

Southerners, and Floridians in particular, lived in mortal fear of mosquito-borne yellow fever. Back then, no one really understood the disease. It was a commonly held belief that it was spread through the air. During outbreaks, many people would move to the coastal cities, thinking the air would be purer there. But even those who lived on the coast couldn’t escape yellow fever. It had a high mortality rate, and it was known to wipe entire communities off the map.

In 1886 or 1887, a family of four, whose names are now lost to history, lost one child, then the other to yellow fever. Soon the parents died as well, all before the priest could arrive from Tampa to give them their Last Rites. They were all hastily buried on their land, and the remaining pioneers abandoned their homesteads in fear of the disease and promptly left the state.

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Their farms lay vacant until the early 20^th century when others again tried to successfully make a living farming. In 1905, a man named Albert Hawkins bought the dead settlers’ land, built a home for himself and his family, and began farming.  

He hadn’t noticed when he’d bought the land, but he found in the corner of one field on the banks of the St. Johns River four wooden crosses surrounded by a rusty barbed wire fence. Being a respectful man, he replaced the fence and began maintaining the little cemetery. He was careful to always plow around the plot. Hawkins was so adamant that respect be shown to those graves that he told his children, grandchildren, and anyone who would listen to be sure to show respect for the dead and stay away from the cemetery.

Not everyone listened, and weird things started to happen.

First, a neighbor tore down the barbed wire fence that surrounded the cemetery. Ironically, lightning struck his house that very day and it burned to the ground.

Other neighbors who lived near the field complained of strange things happening in their homes. Their children’s toys moved on their own, as if a child was playing with them, but there was no one there. Rocking chairs rocked on their own, even in enclosed rooms with no drafts.

 In the 1950’s, a friend of Mr. Hawkins’ grandson thought it would be fun to kick over the wooden crosses and maybe dig up some bones. The next day as he was walking through town, he was struck by a car and died instantly. The driver was never identified, and witnesses to the accident - lifelong residents of Sanford – didn’t recognize the car.

Weird apparitions had been spotted in that field, weirder things were experience by neighbors, and nothing good came to those who desecrated that sacred spot. With the unexplained phenomena and now a death, locals began calling the land that contained the four graves the “Field of the Dead” and stayed away.

In the late 50’s and early 60’s, Florida’s popularity as a vacation destination reached its peak. Tourists came for the alligators, beaches, and the warm weather. Florida’s roads were inadequate, both in quality and in quantity. Developers came to Florida again to construct interstates that would crisscross the state to funnel people to and from the coasts. I-4 was slated to connect Tampa and Daytona Beach. It would be going through Sanford, and right through the Field of the Dead.

In 1959, the land was taken by imminent domain. During the transaction, Albert Hawkins warned FDOT there was a little cemetery on his property that needed to be moved before construction began. The officials assured him they’d take care of everything and move the graves and reinter them at a nearby cemetery.

Either through neglect or oversight, the immigrant family was never dug up and buried elsewhere. Building began on September 10th, 1960, by dumping dirt right on top of the graves to construct the bridge that would span the St. John’s River.

FDOT didn’t know it, but destruction was about to befall those who disturbed the little family’s final resting place.

Out in the Gulf of Mexico, a massive hurricane named Donna was brewing. It was well away from the coast of Florida and on its way to Louisiana. Only the Gulf Coast of Florida might experience choppy waves, if that. The meteorologists, using their most up-to-date technology at the time, had predicted it to happen just that way. There was no reason to believe anything different.

But suddenly at the last minute Donna took a sharp right turn and took aim right at the coast. She headed straight to Sanford, right where they had begun construction on I-4 over the Field of the Dead.  In fact, it hit the very day the first bucket of dirt was dropped on the cemetery. Donna ripped across Florida, taking the same path as the proposed I-4 corridor. The construction site was so damaged, it was months before building could even resume.

In a few years, I-4 was completed, but then strange things started happening. Motorists began reporting seeing glowing orbs, and in some instances full-bodied apparitions when they would cross the bridge that was built over the graves.

Others saw nothing, but heard plenty. When crossing the bridge, radios would become staticky. Some swore they heard unearthly voices over the hiss.

Those things are something that could be explained easily, though. Alcohol, fatigue, and wild imaginations can play tricks on the mind, making a person see and hear things that aren’t there.

Within a few years, locals and the highway patrol began noticing a pattern. There were an inordinate number of accidents, many of them fatal, on that quarter mile stretch of highway that spanned the St. Johns River. Curious locals dug through accidents report and found there had been a fatal accident the very day the road was opened to traffic.

It’s a fact that since I-4 opened in 1963, more than 2,000 accidents have occurred in that quarter mile stretch. It’s killed so many people, it’s become known as “the Dead Zone.” Ironically, the accidents don’t seem to be attributable to the roadway. The highway there is flat, there’s nothing that can obstruct a driver’s view, but yet accidents continue to happen.

That alone is freaky, but there’s more to the mystery of I-4.

In 2004, I-4 was due for repairs, and construction began on that stretch of road right over the graves. And, just like Donna had 40 years before, Hurricane Charley took an unexpected right turn and hit the construction site. In fact, the eye went right over the Dead Zone. It even took the same path Donna did and went right up the I-4 corridor.