The total number of buried skeletons was revised to be 523, and the burial mound was estimated to date to the 14th century.

[5][6] The cemetery was discovered on August 17, 1956, when a steam shovel was in the process of demolishing the 60 feet (18 m) high hill.

The soil was being transported for use in constructing an overpass for Highway 401 and the cleared site was then intended to be turned into the Bendale suburban subdivision.

[7] After digging some one hundred feet into the hill the workers found a large collection of human bones.

[8] Royal Ontario Museum assistant curator of ethnology Walter Kenyon supervised an archaeological examination of the site.

[9] Kenyon described the larger pit as "the deepest ossuary I have ever seen or heard of"[10] and "the most significant ethnological discovery in Canada's history.

[1] The ceremony was held over three days from October 19–21, supervised by Chief Joseph Logan[13] and was attended by more than 200 indigenous people and several thousand local residents and visitors.

[9] A banquet was subsequently held at the Scarborough Golf Club, where Jack Pickersgill, then the federal minister of citizenship and immigration addressed the crowd.