Petoskey, Michigan

Petoskey is a city in Michigan, and serves as the county seat of Emmet County. It is a resort community of over 6,000 residents located on the shores of Lake Michigan’s Little Traverse Bay. The name “Petoskey” means “rays of dawn” in the language of the Ottawa (tribe) indians (Little Traverse Bay Band), who are the original inhabitants of the region.

Visitors greatly enjoy the Petoskey area because of the year-long attractions: springtime flowers, swimming and boating in the summer, fall colors, and skiiing in the winter. The U.S. government estimates the median income for a household in the city at around $33,657, and the median income for a family at $48,168. North Central Michigan College is also located in Petoskey.

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 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. It is also the boyhood home of singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens.