More than two dozen additional unmarked graves may have been discovered on the grounds of a defunct boys reform school in the Florida Panhandle that was notorious for beatings, abuse, forced labor and neglect, according to a letter sent by the state’s governor this week.

The discovery at the former Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys came during pollution cleanup at the site last month when a subcontractor found 27 “anomalies” in the ground consistent with possible graves, according to the letter from Gov. Ron DeSantis to the chairman of the board of commissioners in Jackson County, where the school grounds are.

The latest development adds to the grim accounting of the school, where anthropologists have already found 55 graves and unearthed the remains of 51 people from the 1,400-acre campus, which sits amid thick pine forests in the town of Marianna.

In records, the cause of death for the boys was often listed as “unknown” or “accident”, though it is known that a fire in 1914 killed eight boys who had been locked in a room. Others died in flu epidemics. Some runaways were shot.

Mr. DeSantis has asked state officials to work with Jackson County on how to address the new findings, and more testing is needed to determine whether the anomalies are, indeed, unmarked graves. The county plans to develop an industrial center at the site as well as a training center for people with autism.

Almost from the moment the school opened as the Florida State Reform School in 1900, there was a steady stream of reports of abuse, indentured servitude, crowding and neglect. So many children — among them runaways and so-called incorrigibles — were sent to the institution that it became the largest in the country.

Despite continued allegations of mistreatment and harsh conditions, the school remained open until 2011, when the state shuttered it. Advocacy efforts by a group of men known as the White House Boys helped to reveal the horrors that took place at the school. A team of anthropologists from the University of South Florida used radar technology to search beneath the ground and discover dozens of unmarked graves.

The anthropology team has focused largely on Boot Hill, which during the segregation era was a documented cemetery on the African-American side of campus.

The latest findings only add to the catharsis for people like Jerry Cooper, who was at the school from 1960-61 and is president of the White House Boys, whose name is a nod to the small cinder-block building where they say they were viciously flogged for the slightest infraction.

“Does it surprise me about what they located?” Mr. Cooper, 74, asked. “No. I’ve always said this is not all the bodies. I experienced that place. I know what went on there. It’s a lot worse than the people know.”

He once received 135 lashes at 2 a.m., he said, and almost died from the beating.

There are untold numbers of stories like that.

Mr. Cooper said he was at a ceremony at the Dozier campus earlier this year, and now the thought of what lay in the soil beneath his feet makes him shudder.

“One hundred yards away or so, there’s 27 more anomalies,” he said. “That hits hard.”

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