The site was a burial location dating from the Middle Woodland period.[3]
In 1970, workers encountered human remains while excavating sand from private property at this site. Amateur archaeologists Leo Purple and Arthur Graves conducted a salvage excavation at the site later that year, and recovered remains of at least 20 individuals. The majority of the burials were bundle burials, containing multiple objects. Purple and Graves donated some of the items to the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology (UMMAA) in 1976, and some to the Chippewa Nature Center in Midland, MI in 1974. In 2006, the Nature Center donated human remains and objects from the Bugai site to the UMMAA.[4]
^The NRIS lists the location of the Bugai Site as "address restricted." References (Janet G. Brashler; Margaret B. Holman (1985), "Late Woodland Continuity and Change in the Saginaw Valley of Michigan", Arctic Anthropology, 22 (2): 141–152, JSTOR40316095) indicate the approximate location, reflected by the geo-coordinates.
