Seven ancient coffins containing human remains — including a toddler’s — were mysteriously discovered near the North Dakota’s governor’s residence by archaeologists, state officials confirmed.
The caskets and an empty wooden box were found while contractors were performing security upgrades at the Bismarck property and resulted in a months-long excavation process, according to the state Office of Management and Budget.
The remains appear to be that of two women, two men, two teenage boys and one toddler, People magazine reported.
The shocking discovery was made in the area of what was Bismarck’s first cemetery from 1873 to 1877, but many of those burials had since been reinterred to nearby St. Mary’s Cemetery and Fairview Cemetery in the 1880s, according to the Bismarck Monitor.
“They had thought in the 1880s that they had exhumed everybody,” State Historical Society of North Dakota spokesperson Kara Haff told The Bismarck Tribune.
“There’s an article that says ‘we’ve moved everybody but two, and we expect that work to be done within the next week.’”
Brandon Solberg, OMB’s facilities management director, told People that the archaeologists completed their fieldwork on Sept. 14 and flagged over 80 areas of interest.
The research team has since begun cataloging their findings and are expected to complete their analysis early next year, Solberg said.
Meanwhile, officials are working with a local funeral home to handle the remains before they are reinterred at another cemetery in the spring, the Monitor reported.
The remains were found after state lawmakers approved $2.35 million in security upgrades on the governor’s residence — home to Gov. Kelly Armstrong — including fence and driveway extensions.
The archaeological work cost an additional $155,000, officials estimated.
