WYANDOTTE COUNTY, Kan. -- KCTV5 News investigates a story that was more than 150 years in the making, involving a little known piece of land in an area that will soon get a lot of attention.

The section of land was once in the middle of nowhere.

But, because of decades of growth and expansion, the long forgotten cemetery will soon rest alongside a massive modern development.

Patricia Schurkamp, director of the Wyandotte County Museum, said times were tough in Wyandotte County in 1870.

If you had anything, you were lucky, she said. If you had nothing, you came to the Wyandotte County Poor Farm. Between 1870 and 1973, thousands of people with nothing lived, worked and often died on the farm.

"It was determined through the county that we needed to establish a home for the indigent, the senile, the alcoholic," said Schurkamp. "Can you imagine walking through and you have your children beside you? You have no home, you have no food, you have no money, and on the second floor, you hear people screaming or yelling or the beds are rattling because they're going through convulsions through alcoholic withdrawal, and this is your home?"

Health care was nothing short of atrocious, said Schurkamp.

"If your leg gets infected, they have to amputate. Amputation was cruel and unkind and often an experiment," she said.

Schurkamp said that when residents of the poor farm died, their bodies were put to rest in the Wyandotte County Cemetery, in what was known as a Potter's Field. This was the final resting place for hundreds of men, women and children, a cemetery for people who had no money.

"We know that the youngest burial is 6 months and the oldest is 102," she said.

But from the period between 1870 and 1948, there are no records identifying who was buried there or where their bodies were placed. Today, only two of the plots are marked with headstones.

Chris Schoen is an archeologist with the Louis Berger Group in Iowa, which was hired to pinpoint the cemetery's boundaries.

After underground surveying was completed using state-of-the-art electrical and magnetic techniques, Schoen and his colleagues spent weeks on the site gently scraping away at the earth to uncover tiny pieces of the past.

"In this case, we were actually able to see the very top edge of one of the wooden coffins, and then this area here we have some of the coffin handles outlined," said Schoen.

Archaeologists set up an orange fence to represent what they believe to be the boundaries of this cemetery. Inside it, the final resting place for hundreds of unidentified people.

So, after more than 150 years, why is this cemetery getting all this attention now?

Just over the fence line, there's a $750 million water park under construction -- Schlitterbahn Vacation Village.

The 370-acre resort will be one of the world's largest water parks with nearly a million square feet of retail space and 1,500 hotel rooms -- all located on a tract of land near North 94th Street and State Avenue, right next to hundreds of unidentified bodies.

"The cemetery itself is owned by the Unified Government. Once we determined the boundaries, anything outside those boundaries is the Schlitterbahn property," said Ron Stitt, an architect with the Unified Government whose responsibility it was to ensure the boundaries of the cemetery were identified and protected.

"Well, it was very important to us, out of respect for the families of the deceased in the cemetery. That was one of the understandings up front -- that once the boundaries are established, the water park cannot encroach on those boundaries," said Stitt.

"So, how confident are you that you know where all the graves are?" asked KCTV5's Ash-har Quraishi.

"Very confident. Very confident. You bet," said Stitt.

But with no records for nearly 80 years, no one can say for sure where all the bodies are located.

"So we have a good confidence of where the internments are. Of course, there's always the possibility that there are some elsewhere," said Schoen. "Archeology is not an exact science."

Robin Paulakovich has lived across the street from the cemetery for 11 years. She said that despite its history and what lies under its surface, almost no one even knows it's here.

"When I give people directions to my house, 'I live right across the street from the cemetery." Most people drive right by it because they don't see it," Paulakovich said.

She said it's never bothered her, living next to an unmarked cemetery. And it doesn't bother her now that Schlitterbahn is moving into her historically quiet neighborhood.

But Paulakovich said she does hope Schlitterbahn respects its new neighbors, including former residents like Donita Marie Metzger, whose grave is close to the fence line and is recognized by one of the two markers.

According to the Unified Government, the dead will remain buried in this "untouchable" oasis. If, by some chance during the course of construction, burial plots outside of the fence line are discovered, the county said Schlitterbahn would be obligated to notify them and appropriate steps would be taken.

Representatives from Schlitterbahn Vacation Village declined to speak on camera about the site. But according to the company's Web site, the resort is scheduled to open this summer.