Passenger Pigeons

Yesterday in the museum we learned a lot more about Passenger Pigeons. At one time, there were 5 billion of them in North America. Now they are extinct. This is a stuffed pigeon in the museum, where it tells how these birds were hunted and shipped down south for food. They were so plentiful, one dozen could be had for a penny! There was an invoice from a company specializing in hunting and shipping these birds about 130 years ago that listed how many birds were shipped that one season alone--1.1 million. Now, all we have are stuffed ones and pictures of them to remind us what these pigeons looked like. Very interesting and thought provoking exhibit.

A visit to the History Museum

Today was rainy so the kids and I went to the History Museum. It was, in my daughter's words, "Great!" They had a lot of fun exploring and finding out new things about our town. This is a photograph of Ignatius Petoskey and his Native American headdress and moccasins. It is very intricate in its beading and feathers and it quite beautiful.

One wing of the museum is about the early days of Petoskey and the other wing is about the Victorian age in Petoskey. I think the kids liked the Victorian side the most as there was a working telegraph code machine they could practice on. A very nice place to visit!!

Small town, lots of history.

Petoskey's history museum is located at the waterfront and overlooks the marina. It is an old train station with some of the tracks still in front of the building. I haven't been here in a few years (not the best place to take really young children) but my kids are old enough to read now and they have been asking to go and visit next week. From what I remember, there are quite a few artifacts from the time when Petoskey was a health resort favored by people from Chicago and Detroit. They would come for a few weeks to take the "cure" of fresh air and long walks along the bay. Hopefully more on this later!