VIDEO — North Dakota: Seven Coffins Holding Human Remains Found Near Governor's Residence

Archeologists have located seven coffins containing human remains near the governor’s residence in Bismarck, North Dakota, a site where community members laid their loved ones to rest in the 1800s. Crews found the coffins and a wooden box after Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Facilities Management Director Brandon Solberg said they investigated over 80 spots before concluding their fieldwork in early September, KFYR reported Monday. OMB told People that preliminary analysis of the remains inside the coffins showed they were those of two women, two men, two teenage boys, and a toddler. Per the KFYR article, “The discovery dates back to May 19, when contractors doing excavation on the southwest corner of the property near 4th Street and Boulevard Avenue first uncovered remains, coffin hardware, and fragments. That paused construction and led to a radar scan by the State Historical Society, followed by a dig that started Sept. 1.” The archaeologists’ analysis of the remains and found items is expected to conclude early next year, and the remains will be carefully stored before they are expected to be reburied at a local cemetery. The site was the city’s first community cemetery from 1873 until 1877, and the majority of the graves were believed to have been relocated to other cemeteries. However, it has since been discovered that others were left behind at the site. According to State Historical Society of North Dakota spokesperson Kara Haff, “They had thought in the 1880s that they had exhumed everybody. There’s an article that says ‘we’ve moved everybody but two, and we expect that work to be done within the next week.’ Well, this has kind of proven otherwise.” In a November 8, 2012 article on Public Prairie Newsroom, writer Jim Davis highlighted the historical aspects of the cemetery and the people buried there: On this date in 1883, a reporter from the Bismarck Tribune visited the “Old Graveyard on the Hill” and, as he put it, “the meandering scribe walked leisurely about the weather-beaten slabs and soon was lost in wonderment and reflection.” He wrote about the phenomenal growth of the city and how not long ago these humble tombs were far distant from town. And he noted that “here amid these irregular and rapidly decaying wooden headboards… are the lowly graves of the pioneers and frontiersmen who died fighting the battles, which were the passports of those who are now enjoying the peace and luxury on the very ground for which they fell.” … The reporter went on to reflect on the plans to move the graves noting that “in a few short years they are forgotten, the weeds and wildflowers cover their graves and soon the music and laughter of wealthy, comfortable homes is heard above their bleaching bones.” Indeed, KXNET reported in 2021 that abandoned cemeteries including the Bismarck site held some of the state’s history. “These are the people that came and settled. These people paid a heavy sacrifice to start a life here, they helped build that county and the state of North Dakota,” Morton County Commissioner Andy Zachmeier told the outlet at the time.