SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – Some residents in Central Florida may have heard about a supposedly cursed stretch of Interstate 4 known as the “Dead Zone.”
Well, it turns out that the rumors about this section of the highway may have been made up.
The phrase was first coined by the late historian and author Charlie Carlson in his 2005 book “Weird Florida.” It describes a parcel of land along the southern part of the I-4 bridge over the St. Johns River.
Per its name, the spot is known for lacking cell reception — though that’s not the only weird feature.
“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,” Carlson wrote.
According to Carlson, this part of the highway was built over the remains of four German immigrants who died of yellow fever in the late 1800s. Their bodies had been buried in the woods with no last rites, he claimed, though the land was eventually bought by Carlson’s grandfather roughly 100 years later.
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However, Carlson added that the land was eventually purchased by the state in the late 1950s to pave the way for the new interstate. Since then, the site has been struck by Hurricane Donna, a tractor-trailer truck carrying frozen shrimp jackknifed right above the graves on the opening day of Interstate 4, and some have claimed to see “wispy balls of light that zigzag just above the pavement,” Carlson noted.
“There have been more accidents per year in such a small quarter-mile section of highway than all the other sections of highway between Daytona and Tampa,” Carlson explained.
WAS IT ALL A PRANK?
While reporting on this area in 2023, News 6 reached out to state officials with the Florida Department of Transportation to determine whether any of these claims are true.
An FDOT spokesperson explained that this stretch of the highway hasn’t seen “an unusually high number of crashes,” though apples-to-apples comparisons with other sections of I-4 can be difficult.
But earlier this month, News 6 spoke with author and historian Mark Muncy, who used to work alongside Carlson when it came to researching strange Florida stories.
And according to Muncy, the whole legend stemmed from a grudge over that land.
As Muncy told it, the land had been owned by Carlson’s father, but a family member was injured at some point in a tractor accident near an old gravesite on the plot.
“So they came up with this story that, ‘Oh, it must be cursed! It must be haunted!’ — that sort of thing,” Muncy said. “It was just a family tale, right?”
However, when the I-4 project kicked off, state records show that the land was taken from Carlson’s father.
“They eminent domain that portion of his family land, and Charlie’s dad never forgave them,” Muncy explained. “And so Charlie never forgave them.”
As a result, Muncy claimed, Carlson crafted the legend of the “Dead Zone” on I-4 as a small act of revenge.
“Some people have spotty cell reception there, but that’s because it’s between Sanford and Cassadaga...” Muncy said. “It’s already got a kind of weird reputation because Cassadaga, so there’s some truth to that.”
Carlson himself passed away in 2015 of multiple myeloma cancer. Known as the “Master of Weird,” he specialized in writing about paranormal and strange places and events from all across the state.