Petoskey is a town of about 7,000 permanent residents. It lies on the shore of Little Traverse Bay on the west coast of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. If you imagine your hand is a map of Michigan (it isn't hard to do), Petoskey is near the top of your ring finger.
Petoskey thrives on the flow of tourists from hellholes like Detroit. The population is said to triple in the summer. A lesser number of tourists arrive in the winter to enjoy local ski resorts, like Boyne Mountain, Boyne Highlands, or Nub's Nob. Several exclusive real estate developments for wealthy tourists surround Petoskey, ranging from the nearly antique Bay View to the quite recent Bay Harbor. Locals are more likely to live in Bay Shore, a trailer park.
Petoskey is notable for very little. Ernest Hemingway spent the summers of his youth on nearby Walloon Lake, and the area provides the setting for several of the Nick Adams Stories. Information theorist Claude Shannon was born in Petoskey according to some sources, though others point to Gaylord, Michigan. Civil War historian Bruce Catton was also a Petoskey native.
Editor's note: Petoskey is famous for its Petoskey stones, the official stone of the fine state of Michigan.