A construction crew in Jackson, Mississippi, unearthed more than just dirt while digging a new road in 2012. Their equipment struck wood and revealed a long-buried secret beneath the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC). The workers discovered 66 wooden coffins during the road expansion project.
This accidental find was merely the introduction to a much larger reality. Recent radar technology and historical records confirm that approximately 7,000 bodies lie underground across the campus. These remains belong to patients of the former Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum.
A Hidden Population
The massive burial ground spans roughly 12 acres (4.9 hectares) of the university’s land. The site once housed the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum which operated from 1855 until 1935. This institution was the first of its kind in the state.
The facility grew to encompass 1,320 acres (534 hectares) and housed between 30,000 and 35,000 patients over its 80-year history. The main building stood four stories high with a dome-shaped cupola and large columns. Patients lived in a self-contained world that included a bakery and a carpentry shop.
The Science of Survival and Death
Records from the asylum reveal the difficult conditions patients endured. Many residents died from pellagra which is a disease caused by a deficiency of niacin or Vitamin B3. This condition often resulted from a diet heavy in cornmeal and fatback.
The disease could lead to dementia and death. Staff buried unclaimed bodies in simple pine coffins manufactured in the on-site wood shop. Workers originally marked the graves with wooden stakes. These markers deteriorated over time and left no surface evidence of the thousands buried below.
The Challenge of Identification
The Asylum Hill Project now oversees the effort to manage these remains with $3.7 million in state funding. Dr. Ralph Didlake leads the consortium of scholars working to handle the exhumation and study of the site. A significant scientific hurdle complicates their work.
The local soil is known as Yazoo Clay. The high moisture content and shifting nature of this soil cause the ground to expand and retract. This process has crushed many of the pine coffins and damaged the skeletal remains inside. The soil conditions make DNA extraction difficult or impossible for many of the individuals.
Reclaiming the Past
Bio-archaeologists and historians continue to use other methods to identify the deceased. They utilize dendrochronology to analyze tree rings in the coffin wood to determine burial dates. The team has also located death certificates dating from 1912 to 1935.
The consortium actively seeks descendants of the patients to collect oral histories and photographs. The ultimate goal is to move the remains to a memorial space and allow the medical center to expand its facilities on the cleared land.
In 2012, a road crew in Jackson, Mississippi, struck wood instead of dirt.
They uncovered 66 coffins, but this was just the surface.
Beneath the University of Mississippi Medical Center lies a forgotten city of 7,000 souls from the old State Lunatic Asylum…🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/QnMZRs63wI
— Fascinating True Stories (@FascinatingTrue) December 2, 2025