Welcome to the Farewell to Finder’s Fest geo-art, brought to you by the Forest Minions! This series celebrates weird and unusual things throughout the Sunshine State. Please do not go to the posted locations. Rather, solve the challenging quiz found at the bottom of each page, for the final location. For the letterbox caches, please leave the stamp in the cache. They are not trade items. For the discerning traveler, we’ve included the GPS coordinates for these bizarre locations, when we were able to establish them.
I-4 Hitchhikers – Location 28.8329, -81.3217
Halfway between Daytona and Orlando is a quarter-mile section of Interstate-4 known to locals as the “Dead Zone.” This short span of asphalt, located in Seminole county, at the south end of the interstate bridge across the St. Johns River, has become legendary for its high number of traffic accidents. Depending on sources, there have been an estimated 1,048 to 1,740 car crashes at this location since the highway was opened in 1963 with a significant number involving fatalities. In 1870, this area was part of a grant owned by Henry Sanford, head of the Florida Land and Colonization Company.
In 1886, a small railroad station was built and the area was platted into ten-acre parcels in a scheme to start a Roman Catholic colony called St. Joseph’s colony. St. Joseph’s never got off to a good start, as an outbreak of yellow fever wiped out four members of one immigrant family. Fearing that the fever was contagious, the bodies were buried in the woods north of the railroad. These graves were buried under fill dirt, when the bridge was built. A common theme among those involved in these crashes were reports of persons standing in the roadway, with their hands out, as if trying to stop traffic, or hitch a ride. These persons are never seen, after the crashes.
Here is the super duper, way challenging, really hard trivia question, which, if solved properly, will lead you to the final coordinates:
Question: In which US city is it technically illegal for firefighters to rescue an undressed woman, even if she is wearing a night gown?
A: Mordor = N29° 29.768' W81° 50.403'
B: Hogwarts = N29° 29.758' W81° 50.403'
C: St Louis, Missouri = N29° 29.748' W81° 50.403'