Discovery of 1,000 bodies stops building project

The University of Mississippi was preparing to build a large parking garage when they made the discovery.

Radar scans of the area showed up to 1,000 bodies in graves under the exact place where the building was planned.

Not everyone was surprised by the findings.

University spokesperson Jack Mazurak told Yahoo News, "the property that the University of Mississippi Medical Center is located on used to be the location of the state insane asylum."

The real name was the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum, a facility that opened before the Civil War ended and closed in the 1930s.

Making matters even worse, there are no names for any of the bodies buried there.

The school told Yahoo News moving the bodies would cost $3,000 each making it impractical.

The final decision was to leave the bodies in the tree filled grove, and build the parking garage somewhere else.

This isn’t the first-time Ole Miss has run across this problem. Other projects have been delayed or moved due to the large number of unmarked graves in the area.

School officials say Civil War dead, TB victims, and former slaves have been uncovered in the past.

More here.