Little Traverse History Museum

The Little Traverse History Museum is where Petoskey tells its own story, in the old train station by the waterfront. The Chicago and West Michigan railroad built the depot in 1892, and trains carried passengers from Chicago and St. Louis until the 1960s.

When the station faced demolition, the Little Traverse Historical Society stepped in, and the museum opened in 1971.

Hemingway readers should stop here. He spent his summers and the winter of 1919 to 1920 in Petoskey, and the museum keeps a Hemingway collection, recently joined by a piano that belonged to his mother. Other exhibits have covered Native American history, lumbering, the passenger pigeon and the women of Little Traverse Bay, and they change over time.

It is a small, seasonal museum run largely by volunteers, so check the season before you plan around it. The Little Traverse Wheelway passes the door, which makes it an easy stop on a ride or a waterfront walk.