遗体被认为是在1870年代，当时州长官邸所在地的墓地在俾斯麦早期定居时期被迁移时被遗漏的。
7 Coffins Are Found Near North Dakota Governor’s Residence The bodies are believed to have been overlooked when a cemetery at the current site of the governor’s residence in Bismarck was moved in the 1870s, during the capital’s early settlement period.
去年5月，北达科他州州长官邸的承包商正在升级安全围栏和车道时，他们做出了一项发现，导致工作被迫停止。在院子的西南角，曾经有一座墓地的地方，他们挖出了看起来像人类遗骸和棺材碎片的东西。
Last May, contractors were upgrading the security fences and driveway at the governor’s residence in North Dakota when they made a discovery that brought the work to a standstill. In the southwest corner of the grounds, where a cemetery had once been, they unearthed what appeared to be human remains and coffin fragments.
接下来的四个月里，起初只是州首府俾斯麦的一项景观和施工工作，演变成了对州历史的审视。本周，州长凯利·阿姆斯特朗政府的官员们公布了对遗骸的分析结果：其中包括两名女性、两名男性、两名青少年男孩和一个幼儿。
Over the next four months, what started as a landscaping and construction job in the state capital, Bismarck, turned into an examination of the state’s history. This week, officials in Gov. Kelly Armstrong’s administration announced the results of an analysis of the remains: They were two women, two men, two teenage boys and a toddler.
州管理与预算办公室在一份声明中表示，这七具遗骸似乎是在1877年后，当时俾斯麦早期定居时期，原墓地的遗体被挖出并迁移到新墓地时被遗漏的。
The seven sets of remains appear to have been overlooked when bodies at the former cemetery were exhumed after 1877 and moved to new cemeteries during Bismarck’s early settlement period, the state Office of Management and Budget said in a statement.
“许多人已经被重新安葬到其他地方，”该办公室发言人詹·拉布在接受采访时说。“我们不知道那里还有遗骸。”5月19日的发现引发了一项广泛的项目，该项目在科学、历史和精神层面交汇进行——俾斯麦曾是一个边疆小镇，如今是一个约有78,000人口的城市。
“Many were already reinterred to somewhere else,” Jen Raab, a spokeswoman for the office, said in an interview. “We didn’t know there were still some there.”The discovery on May 19 set in motion a wide-ranging project that has played out at the nexus of science, history and spirituality in Bismarck, a onetime frontier town that is now a city of about 78,000.
去年，州立法机构批准了235万美元用于州长官邸的安全升级工程，该官邸位于州议会大厦的场地内。在发现遗骸后，考古学家被派往现场进行地面穿透雷达勘查。他们在地下检测到超过80处异常，最终发现了七具遗骸和一个空木箱，州管理与预算办公室如是说。
The state Legislature last year approved $2.35 million in security upgrades at the governor’s residence, which sits on the grounds of the Capitol. After the remains were discovered, archaeologists were dispatched to the site to conduct surveys with ground-penetrating radar. They detected more than 80 anomalies in the earth, leading to the recovery of seven sets of remains and an empty wood box, the Office of Management and Budget said.
一位牧师将组织对遗骸的仪式性处理，这些遗骸将于明年重新安葬，拉布女士如是说。
A chaplain will organize a ceremonial handling of the remains, which will be reburied next year, Ms. Raab said.
在周五的一份声明中，州长办公室发言人迈克·诺瓦茨基表示，阿姆斯特朗州长“希望确保遗骸得到适当的照顾和尊重。”遗骸的发现引发了人们对前墓地的关注，以及那些长期埋葬的死者如何与现代城市生活交织在一起。
In a statement on Friday, Mike Nowatzki, a spokesman for the governor’s office, said Governor Armstrong “wants to ensure the remains are treated with appropriate care and respect.”The discovery of the remains generated interest in the former cemetery and how its long-buried dead ended up intersecting with modern city life.
史学家们翻阅档案报纸剪报中的讣告，以帮助讲述这些葬礼的故事，这些葬礼发生在1872年至1877年期间的草坡上——这一时期恰逢城镇更名，原名埃德温顿的城镇于1873年更名为俾斯麦。
Historians scoured archival newspaper clippings for death notices to help tell the story of the burials, which were held on the grassy knoll from 1872 through 1877 — a period that coincides with the renaming of the town, formerly known as Edwinton, to Bismarck in 1873.
该墓地并无正式名称。根据州档案馆的记载，镇民们通常称其为“山上的墓地”。
The cemetery did not have an official name. Townspeople generally called it “the graveyard on the hill,” according to the state archives.
“它位于镇外很远的地方，”北达科他州档案馆副馆长林赛·K·梅丁格如是说。
“It was far out of town,” said Lindsay K. Meidinger, the deputy archivist at the North Dakota State Archives.
据知，安葬在那里的一位是名叫索菲·德马什的妇女。《俾斯麦周刊论坛报》于1877年1月报道称，她“经历了三天的分娩，但可能会康复。”然而，她并未康复。据梅丁格提供的档案剪报所示，她于次月去世，报纸也作了报道。
One person known to have been buried there was a woman named Sophie deMarsh. The Bismarck Weekly Tribune reported in January 1877 that she “suffered through three days labor, but will probably recover.”She did not. She died in the next month, the newspaper reported, according to archival clippings provided by Ms. Meidinger.
到1877年底，旧报纸剪报显示，墓地的一部分将被出售，以便修建铁路。墓地及其安葬者必须寻找新的安息之地。于是，遗骸被迁移到其他墓地。
By the end of 1877, the old newspaper clippings reported that a section of the burial ground was going to be sold to make way for a railroad. The cemetery, and those at rest there, had to find a new home. So bodies were moved to other cemeteries.
但并非全部如此，正如报纸在随后的几十年里所报道的那样。随着城市的发展，越来越多的遗骸被发现，它们的安息之地无意中与新铺设的街道和铁路轨道交织在一起。
But not all of them, as the newspaper reported over the decades that followed. As the city developed, more of the buried dead were found, their resting places inadvertently intertwined with newly laid streets and railroad tracks.
1903年，在为有轨电车线路进行挖掘施工时，在旧墓地遗址至少发现了13具遗体，其中包括一名叫戴夫·穆伦的男子，据报纸报道，他“在与来自老林肯堡的一些士兵的冲突中被枪击身亡”。
In 1903, at least 13 bodies were unearthed during excavations for a trolley line at the site of the old graveyard, including that of a man named Dave Mullen, who was “shot and killed in a row with some soldiers from old Fort Lincoln,” according to the newspaper.
1959年，在该地块西南部将要新建州长官邸的区域，发现了一座浅坟。两名工人使用“电铲”发现了骨骼，当年报纸进行了报道。
In 1959, a shallow grave was discovered at the southwest section of the plot, where a new governor’s house was to be constructed. Two workers using a “power shovel” found the bones, the newspaper reported that year.
同年，使用装载机的工人发现了一个“古老的松木箱”，内部装有一名据信在45岁时去世的男子的遗骸。当年夏天，至少发现了五具遗体。
That same year, workers using a dirt loader found an “ancient pine box” holding the remains of a man who was believed to have died at 45. In total, at least five bodies were found that summer.
考古学家目前正在审查和编目在五月发现的遗骸。他们预计将在2027年初完成工作。
Archaeologists are now reviewing and cataloging the remains that were found in May. They expect to be done early in 2027.
一家殡仪馆已被委托协助进行重新安葬，而在遗骸被发现时，一个非营利组织也被召唤到现场。
A funeral home has been contracted to help with the reburials, and a nonprofit group was called to the site when the remains were found.
“我们在那个遗址为逝者祈祷了一番，”危机关怀牧师服务的牧师格雷格·卡尔在本周的一次采访中说道。他说，重新安葬将在春季进行。
“We had a word of prayer over that site for the deceased,” Greg Carr, a chaplain with Crisis Care Chaplaincy, said in an interview this week. He said the reburials will take place in the spring.
“我们将处理这些事件的精神层面，”卡尔先生说。“无法知道这些人是谁，或者他们的宗教背景是什么，即便他们有宗教信仰的话——尤其是在1800年代的北达科他州。
“We’ll handle the spiritual aspect of the events,” Mr. Carr said. “There’s no way to know who these people are or what their religious backgrounds were, if they even had one in the 1800s in North Dakota.”
克里斯汀·豪泽是《纽约时报》的一名记者，负责撰写突发新闻和专题报道。
Jennifer Sinco Kelleher contributed reporting. Christine Hauser is a Times reporter who writes breaking news and features.