Seven ancient coffins holding human remains, including a toddler’s, were found near North Dakota’s governor’s residence during security upgrades, forcing a months-long dig into Bismarck’s forgotten first cemetery.
Contractors working on fence and driveway extensions at the governor’s residence in Bismarck uncovered the coffins while performing security upgrades that state lawmakers had funded at $2.35 million. State officials confirmed the find on the property that is home to Gov. Kelly Armstrong.
The seven coffins contained the remains of two women, two men, two teenage boys and one toddler. Workers also found one empty wooden box. The site sits in the area of Bismarck’s first cemetery, which operated from 1873 to 1877.
What followed was a months-long excavation. Archaeologists finished fieldwork on Sept. 14 after flagging more than 80 areas of interest. The research team has begun cataloging the findings and expects to finish analysis early next year. Officials are working with a local funeral home to handle the remains before reinterment at another cemetery in the spring.
The extra archaeological work carried an estimated price tag of $155,000 on top of the original security project.
The New York Post reported that many burials from the old cemetery were reinterred in the 1880s to St. Mary’s Cemetery and Fairview Cemetery. Contemporary accounts suggested the work was nearly complete.
Kara Haff, spokesperson for the State Historical Society of North Dakota, described the earlier expectations.
"They had thought in the 1880s that they had exhumed everybody."
Haff pointed to period reporting that left little room for doubt at the time.
"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, facilities management director for the state Office of Management and Budget, said archaeologists completed the fieldwork on Sept. 14 and flagged the dozens of additional spots. Cataloging is underway with analysis due early next year.
The discovery is the kind of sudden find that can stop a construction crew cold, much like other shocking body discoveries that force communities to confront what was left behind.
State lawmakers approved the $2.35 million package specifically for fence and driveway extensions at the governor’s residence. The coffins surfaced only because that work went forward. Taxpayers now cover both the security improvements and the unexpected $155,000 archaeological bill.
Officials have treated the remains with care, routing them through a local funeral home ahead of spring reinterment. No injuries, arrests or criminal findings have been reported. The story is historical, not criminal, yet it still shows how government property projects can unearth unfinished business from more than a century ago.
Public attention often turns to questions of life, death and official responsibility, whether the issue is new assisted-suicide laws or the proper handling of the dead. Here the duty is simpler: finish the analysis, rebury the remains with dignity, and account for every dollar spent.
The 80-plus flagged areas mean the story is not finished. Researchers will keep working through the winter. Reinterment is scheduled for spring at a cemetery that has not been named publicly.
Communities across the country still confront sudden loss and the need for clear answers, as seen when multiple shootings left families searching for facts in a single weekend. The Bismarck case is quieter, but the principle is the same: identify what was found, document it, and close the matter properly.
Gov. Armstrong’s residence remains the working seat of North Dakota’s executive branch while the historical cleanup continues around it. The coffins date to a frontier cemetery that city leaders believed they had already emptied. The ground proved otherwise.
When government projects dig into the past, taxpayers deserve straight answers and careful stewardship, not surprises left in the soil for the next generation to find.