Flying orbs, phantom trucks, ghost hitchhikers – sounds like something from the Disney Haunted Mansion, but instead they are in reference to sightings on Interstate four (I-4) between Orlando and Daytona. It is easy to think that all of that talk about ghostly figures on I-4 is all fake or tricks on people’s minds…but what about the 2,000 car accident deaths on one single overpass on I-4 since the highway was built in 1963…
In 1887, a yellow fever epidemic hit the Central Florida area, specifically a Roman Catholic Colony, called the St.Joseph’s Colony, and sadly the only colony’s priest died. So when a family of four passed from the yellow fever epidemic, there was no one to bless the graves. Therefore the living members of the colony buried the family of four without any ceremony with four unmarked graves.
The land was purchased by Albert Hawkins in 1905 for farming and when he found the four graves, he built his farm around the graves out of respect for the family. Hawkins took care of the graves by mowing the grass and keeping the land clean. In time, his care for the land became well-known and nicknames the Field of the Dead by other local settlers.
When Albert Hawkins died in 1935, his wife took care of the land and the graves. However in 1960, the land was purchased to build Interstate 4. The state surveyors were told about the graves and originally marked them off to be removed and placed somewhere else…but for some reason this never happened. Instead fill dirt was placed on the graves and they started building I-4 right on top of them.
As soon as the building began over the graves, things started to happen. Hurricane Donna, known as one of the worst hurricanes in Central Florida, eerily made its way right over the site of the graves with the eye of the hurricane sitting above the new construction site of I-4. This could just be a coincidence, but what was weird was how the hurricane got there. It started out breaking land from the Atlantic Ocean in South Florida. It then moved across the state completely to the Gulf Of Mexico, but then it moved back onto land and started moving up the newly made I-4. Hurricane Donna’s eye lay over the graves at around midnight after it’s second landfall…It was several months before construction of I-4 could continue due to the extreme damage of Hurricane Donna, which made people think it was the dead fighting back from their resting place .
Ever since the highway was completed, people have reported seeing ghosts along the highway, ghost hitchikers in their cars, phantom trucks, and orbs crossing the highway. Some people say that when they are on their cell phones in this spot that weird unrecognizable voices will come on the line interrupting their conversations. Radio stations have been known to go from a perfectly clear signal to static and sometimes even eerie voices will be heard over the radio speakers…It is hard to ignore the over 2,000 deaths that have occurred due to accidents on this overpass…some of those who lived through their accident claimed they swerved to not hit the family of four crossing the street. Others say they hit a few people. However no people or bodies were ever found.
The ghost sitings and the massive amount of highways deaths in this area of I-4 where the family of four still lie is known as the “Dead Zone”.
Want to know where it is? Check out this picture of the area and this map. Most of us will have to drive over the Dead Zone at some point, but now that you know where it is, be careful of what you see and beware of the Dead Zone.
