VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — Florida Hospital is donating land to become the new resting place for the mystery human remains found on their construction site in DeLand.
While investigators weren't able to identify the remains or reach out to their families, they did learn a lot more about why the remains were there.
Hector DeJesus the chief operating officer of Florida Hospital DeLand said the discovery of the remains was unexpected.
"It was a surprise to us," DeJesus said.
When crews broke ground on a 6,700-square-foot expansion at Florida Hospital DeLand they planned on finding an unmarked graveyard.
Photos: Human remains found at hospital construction site
"The hospital was built in 1962 and subsequently this was basically orange groves and such," DeJesus said.
Archaeologists later discovered that in the 1800s the land was used as an agricultural poor farm where people being cared for by Volusia County could raise their own food to help relieve some of the county's financial burden.
"The problem with that is that most of the individuals that the county agreed to care for were elderly or sick and therefore couldn't actually farm on the poor farm," archeologist Jennifer Mack said.
Many of those who lived there also died there and were buried on the land in unmarked graves.
Archeologists found 21 graves at the construction site.
"These people, who were the throwaways of society when they were alive, they no longer lie in these forgotten, unmarked graves," Mack said.
The hospital is donating land, where the remains can be reinterred.
After the remains were removed, the hospital was allowed to continue with construction of their cardiac catheterization lab.
Hospital officials said the $3.5 million addition will allow doctors to perform more elective procedures with minimally invasive techniques.