Bizarre LHS wiring problem
 

2000 chrysler LHS, 153000miles

Went to drive home today and had this happen
Turned car on, everything was fine.
Put in drive, the gauges well went to zero, backlights all went off. Car ran fine. No rear running lights
On highway, flipped high beams by accident and everything came back on. Speedometer went past 120 and is at the 180* position now.
Pulled into parking lot. Checked fuses. All was well except for an "illuminator" fuse. Don't remember exact wording. Put new fuse in, everything worked fine except for speedometer. Drove in circle around parking lot.
As I was pulling in, everything went off. Fuse was blown. The brake lights wouldn't turn off though. Pulled that fuse so I wouldn't kill the battery overnight.

Any suggestions? I wasn't able to fit my shoulders in the foot box to see up past the foot blower, but am suspecting a corroded wire of some sort. Any help on what this may be? The weirdest part was the brake lights being left on. Also, would disconnecting the battery bring the speedometer back to 0 or is it stuck at the 180* position? When I started the car with the fuses in, it went clockwise and pegged on the other side of 0, and when I turned it off it went back to the bottom.

Thanks guys!

Post the cavity number of the fuse and which fuse box it's in...underhood or inside the car.