Feb 11, 2014 03:14 PM EST By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

The University of Mississippi Medical Center, a medical school, has a dead body issue, and its delaying future construction projects. When the school surveyed a site intended to be a parking lot for their dental school, they found 1,000 bodies, graves from the old mental institution that last stood in the area around 80 years ago, USA Today reported.

"None have names," said Dr. James Keeton, dean of the medical school.

It actually wasn't much of a surprise; the shock of finding bodies around the grounds of UMMC has been somewhat diminished since the first discovery in 1990, and subsequent findings thereon after.

It was, however, the largest find, which poses a problem for Keeton and his plans for expansion. Previously, the school was able to relocate graves when the body counts were less than 100. But a thousand graves translate to about $3 million in extra expenses if they choose to dig them up and re-bury them, according to USA Today.

"We can't afford that," Keeton said.

Further complicating the situation is the likelihood of more bodies in other areas of the school's grounds deemed as possible construction sites and those bodies' historical significance in the eyes of archivists.

"There are probably thousands more bodies that we've never seen," said Dr. Luke Lampton, chairman of the state Board of Health and a historian of the old asylum.

Lampton's not only referring to bodies belonging to patients', but to those from a battle during the civil war, which took place within literal bullet shots of the mental hospital (one patient was shot but not killed). UMMC still has some old relics/monuments commemorating the fight, of which Lampton remaked:  "They identified them as Confederate trenches. They are actually Union trenches. They also put cannons there that are actually Spanish-American War guns, and they're pointed the wrong way. Other than that, they got everything right." 

In light of all the recent findings, school officials are seeking other options. They have a good idea of where the asylum graves are located, but they don't know where all the war graves are, according to USA Today.

See Now: Covert Team Inside Newsweek Revealed as Key Players in False Human Trafficking Lawsuit