Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of seven individuals—two women, two men, two teenage boys and one toddler—near the North Dakota governor’s residence in Bismarck, the state capital. Construction workers initially discovered human remains and coffin fragments on the southwest corner of the property on May 19, per the Bismarck Tribune’s Grant Coursey. They were working on a $2.35 million project to upgrade the security fences and driveway at the residence, which is located on the grounds of the State Capitol complex.
Archaeologists with the State Historical Society of North Dakota were called in to investigate. They used ground-penetrating radar to explore the area, a process that revealed more than 80 anomalies, KFYR’s Atticus Pead reports. During a two-week excavation in early September, archaeologists unearthed an empty wooden box and the remains of seven people.
They are now studying and documenting the remains, a process that’s expected to continue into 2027. Solberg adds that the state will attempt to determine basic information about the remains but has no plans to conduct DNA testing. In June, Mike Nowatzki, a spokesman for Governor Kelly Armstrong, told the North Dakota Monitor in an email that the governor “wants to ensure the remains are treated with the appropriate care and respect.” The state is partnering with a local funeral home and a nonprofit chaplain group to help rebury the remains by next spring.
The bodies were found in an area that served as the settlement’s first cemetery, founded in 1872, when Bismarck was still a small riverside community known as Edwinton. The burial ground didn’t have an official name—it was known simply as “the graveyard on the hill,” per the New York Times’ Christine Hauser. The Northern Pacific Railroad changed Edwinton’s name to Bismarck to honor German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck and woo German investors.
Meidinger, the deputy archivist at the North Dakota State Archives, tells the Times. In 1877, the property was sold to make way for a railroad. Most of the individuals buried in the graveyard were exhumed and reburied at other Bismarck cemeteries.
However, it appears some remains were left behind. This is not the first time human remains have turned up in Bismarck as the city has developed. In 1903, at least 13 bodies emerged while the city installed a trolley line near the old cemetery.
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