This article is about the town; for the type of rock, see
Petoskey
Stone.
Sidewalk in downtown Petoskey
Petoskey is a city 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 County6.
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", life takes a severe and lasting turn. Petoskey is 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. "Petoskey" is said to mean "where the light shines through the clouds" in the language of the Ottawa (tribe) Indians (Little Traverse Bay Band) who are the original inhabitants. But verifiable is
that The Petoskey stone and the city i were named after Chief Ignatius Petoskey (1787-1885) who founded the community. Petoskey's
father was a French fur trader and his mother was an Odawa (Ottawa) Indian.
This city was the northern terminus of the Chicago and West Michigan
Railroad.
Geography
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 13.5
km² (5.2 mi²). 13.0 km² (5.0 mi²) of it is land
and 0.5 km² (0.2 mi²) of it (4.02%) is water.
Demographics
As of the census2 of 2000,
there were 6,080 people, 2,700 households, and 1,447 families residing in the city. The population density was 467.6/km² (1,210.9/mi²). There were 3,342 housing units at an average density
of 257.0/km² (665.6/mi²). 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
US 31 connects with M-66 in
Charlevoix, 16 miles to the west. I-75 is 23
miles to the east, via M-68 off US 31. Mackinaw City and the Mackinac Bridge are 37 miles
north via US 31. M-119, accessible off US 31 four miles east at
Bay View, continues around the north side of Little Traverse Bay and then on Lake
Michigan to Cross Village. US
131 has its northern terminus in the city.
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 excursion trains, to Petoskey, are operated by Lake Central Rail Tours.
Historically, the Northern Arrow and other rail lines provided passenger traffic to
Petoskey and Bay View, Michigan from as far as Chicago and Saint Louis, but these were discontinued
in the late 20th century.
Little Traverse Bay at sunset, viewed from
Petoskey
Colleges
Media
- Newspaper
- Local AM radio
- Local FM radio
External links
Coordinates:
45°22′24″N, 84°57′19″W
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