GRANITE FALLS, N.C. -- The remains of 51 people were uncovered at a development site in Granite Falls north of Hickory.

Now they’ve been moved to make room for a new Wal-Mart.

The Granite Falls City Manager says an archeologist found baby teeth and buttons in the grave sites which he dated back to the late 1700s and early 1800s.

The question many residents have is: What’s being done to preserve this unique piece of history?

The developer of this site, Lauth Group Properties out of Charlotte, has been working with the city to move what they thought would be 5 to 10 unmarked graves. But when they started digging they found more than they bargained for.

"A friend of hers said she saw a truck with wooden boxes on the back,” explains neighbor Greg DiGiacomo. Those small wooden boxes held the remains of 51 different people. The graves could be 200 years old, but it's difficult to say because the bones and coffins had decomposed beyond recognition.

"You're looking at the ancestors of probably some of the original people who lived here I would be curious to know who they were,” says DiGiacomo.

The remains were moved a few miles down the street to a public cemetery where the boxes were re-buried -- 10 per plot.

Granite Falls City Manager Linda Story says a funeral director oversaw the whole process and the remains were cared for respectfully.

But DiGiacomo still feels the county is losing a piece of the past.

“There's valuable information there, it was a big deal at some point in somebody else's life and here we are bulldozing over it,” he said.

For residents, this is just another black mark for a building project which has upset neighbors and already had a suspicious fire.

"I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised by anything at this point. It's been interesting," says DiGiacomo.

Story says a representative with the County's Historical Society documented the location of the finding, but no records of the burial could be found since they were likely laid to rest before the city, even the county were established. She also added that the removal of the graves was handled according to state statutes every step of the way.