Petoskey, Michigan

This article is about the town; for the type of rock, see Petoskey Stone.

Petoskey, Michigan
—  City  —
Sidewalk in downtown Petoskey
Location in the state of Michigan
Coordinates: 45°22′24″N 84°57′19″W
Country	United States
State	Michigan
County	Emmet
Government
• Mayor	Theodore Pall, M.D.
Area
• Total	5.2 sq mi (13.5 km2)
• Land	5.0 sq mi (13.0 km2)
• Water	0.2 sq mi (0.5 km2)
Elevation	666 ft (202 m)
Population (2000)
• Total	6,080
• Density	1,211/sq mi (467.6/km2)
Time zone	EST (UTC-5)
• Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP code	49770
Area code(s)	231
FIPS code	26-63820
GNIS feature ID	0634731
Website	http://www.petoskey.us/

Petoskey is a city and coastal resort community in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 6,080. It is the county seat of Emmet County.

Petoskey and the surrounding area are notable for being the setting of several of the Nick Adams stories by Ernest Hemingway, who spent his childhood summers on nearby Walloon Lake, as well as being the place where for Calliope, the protagonist of Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex, events take a severe and lasting turn. Petoskey was also the location where 50,000 passenger pigeon birds were killed each day in the late 19th century, prior to their complete extinction in the early 20th century.

Petoskey is also famous for a high concentration of Petoskey stones, the state stone of Michigan. Petoskey is the birthplace of information theorist Claude Shannon and Civil War historian Bruce Catton and is the boyhood home of singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens.

The name "Petoskey" is said to mean "where the light shines through the clouds" in the language of the Odawa Indians (Little Traverse Bay Band), who are the original inhabitants. The Petoskey stone and the city were named after Chief Ignatius Petosega (1787–1885), who founded the community. Petosega's father was a French Canadian fur trader and his mother was an Odawa (Ottawa) Indian.

This city was the northern terminus of the Chicago and West Michigan Railway.

Geography

The Bear River flows through Petoskey; the Mitchell Street Bridge is in the background.

Part of Northern Michigan, Petoskey is on the southeast shore of the Little Traverse Bay of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Bear River. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 5.2 square miles (13 km²), of which, 5.0 square miles (13 km²) of it is land and 0.2 square miles (0.52 km²) of it (4.02%) is water. The Petoskey area also is rather hilly and rocky.

Demographics

City Hall

At the 2010 Census Petoskey had a population of 5,670. The racial and ethnic makee-up of the population was 90.8% non-Hispanic white, 0.7% black or African American, 4.7% Native American, 0.4% Asian, 0.5% From some other race, 2.1% of two or more races and 1.89% Hispanic or Latino of any race.

As of the census of 2000, there were 6,080 people, 2,700 households, and 1,447 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,210.9 per square mile (467.6/km²). There were 3,342 housing units at an average density of 665.6 per square mile (257.0/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 94.18% White, 0.33% African American, 3.17% Native American, 0.81% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.20% from other races, and 1.30% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.17% of the population.

There were 2,700 households out of which 27.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.8% were married couples living together, 11.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 46.4% were non-families. 39.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.14 and the average family size was 2.89.

In the city the population was spread out with 23.0% under the age of 18, 9.6% from 18 to 24, 28.5% from 25 to 44, 21.7% from 45 to 64, and 17.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 85.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 81.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $33,657, and the median income for a family was $48,168. Males had a median income of $35,875 versus $25,114 for females. The per capita income for the city was $20,259. About 6.6% of families and 12.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.6% of those under age 18 and 8.4% of those age 65 or over.

Transportation

The Little Traverse History Museum is housed in the former Chicago and West Michigan Railroad depot.

Petoskey Marina

Airports

• The nearest airports with scheduled passenger service are in Pellston Regional Airport and Traverse City Cherry Capital Airport.

Rail

• Freight rail service to Petoskey is limited and provided by the Tuscola and Saginaw Bay Railway (TSBY); however, the tracks are owned by the state of Michigan in order to preserve rail service in northern Michigan. Freight traffic includes plastic pellets delivered to a rail/truck transload facility for Petoskey Plastics. Occasional passenger/special excursion trains to Petoskey occur every now and then. Historically, the Northern Arrow and other rail lines provided passenger traffic to Petoskey and Bay View, Michigan from as far as Chicago and St. Louis, but these were discontinued in the late 20th century.

Marina

• The City of Petoskey Department of Parks and Recreation operates a 144-slip marina located in Bayfront Park. The marina offers seasonal and transient slips, gasoline, diesel fuel, boat launch, wireless internet, 30/50 AMP power, water, pump-out, restroom/showers, playground and adjacent park grounds. The Gaslight District is connected to Bayfront Park via a pedestrian tunnel. The marina received initial designation as a "Michigan Clean Marina" in May 2007 and was recertified in 2010.^{[citation needed]}

Major highways

	US-31 is a major highway running through the heart of the city. It continues southerly toward Charlevoix, Traverse City and Muskegon and northerly to a terminus near Mackinaw City.
	US-131 has its northern terminus in the city and continues southerly toward Cadillac and Grand Rapids.
	M-119, accessible off US 31 east of the city and Bay View, continues around the north side of Little Traverse Bay to Harbor Springs and then to Cross Village.
	C-58 begins at C-81 just east of the city and continues to Wolverine.
	C-81 is a north-south route passing just to the east of the city.

Colleges

• North Central Michigan College

Libraries

• Petoskey District Library

Media

Mineral Well Park is one of many sites and buildings in Petoskey listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Newspaper

• Petoskey News-Review

Magazines

• Traverse, is published monthly with a focus on regional interests.

Local AM radio

• WLDR (750) - country; simulcast of WLDR-FM Traverse City
• WJML (1110) - talk
• WMKT (1270) - news/talk (licensed to Charlevoix, studios in Petoskey)
• WMBN (1340) - adult standards

Local FM radio

• WTLI (89.3) - contemporary Christian "Smile FM"
• WTCK (90.9) - Catholic religious (Charlevoix)
• WJOG (91.3) - contemporary Christian "Smile FM"
• WTCM (93.5) - country; simulcast of WTCM-FM Traverse City
• W237DA (95.3) - translator of WFDX-FM Atlanta (classic hits)
• WLXT (96.3) - adult contemporary
• WKLZ (98.9) - classic rock; simulcast of WKLT-FM Kalkaska
• W259AH (99.7) - translator of WPHN-FM Gaylord (religious)
• WICV (100.9) - classical (East Jordan); simulcast of WIAA-FM Interlochen
• WCMW (103.9) - CMU Public Radio (Harbor Springs)
• WKHQ (105.9) - CHR/top 40 (licensed to Charlevoix, studios in Petoskey)
• WCZW (107.9) - oldies (Charlevoix); simulcast of WCCW-FM Traverse City

Camping

Petoskey State Park is located on the Little Traverse Bay between Petoskey & Harbor Springs

Camp Pet-O-Se-Ga is located east of Petoskey on Pickerel Lake

Wilderness State Park is located north of Petoskey in Cross Village

Images

• 

  Little Traverse Bay at sunset

• 

  Northern Michigan Regional Hospital

• 

  Panorama from US 131

• 

  Sign on US 31

• 

  Public library

Further reading

Cappel, Constance, Hemingway in Michigan, 1999, Little Traverse Historical Society: Petoskey, MI. Cappel, Constance, ed., 2006 Odawa Language and Legends, Xlibris:Philadelphia, PA.

Cappel, Constance, 2007,The Smallpox Genocide of the Odawa Tribe at L'Arbre Croche, 1763: A History of a Native American People, Ediwin Mellen Press: Lewiston, NY.

• Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University, Bibliography on Emmet County.

External links

• City of Petoskey Web Site - information, news, and events
• Petoskey Chamber of Commerce
• Boyne & Petoskey Area Visitors Bureau
• Little Traverse History Museum
• Festival on the Bay
• Petoskey Public Library
• Google Map of Petoskey, Michigan