Pelkie, Michigan
Pelkie is an unincorporated community in Baraga County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The community is on the Sturgeon River in the northeast part of Baraga Township at Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found..[1]
Pelkie was settled by French Canadians in about 1885, and was first known as "King's Landing" and was renamed Pelkie after an early settler.[2] Finns who settled there initially called the place Kyrö, after the place they came from in Finland. The name became Kuro after a railroad was built through the area.[3] The precise name of the early settler is unknown. Because many Finns settled in the area, the Finnish name Pelkinen has been suggested as the original. However, the name may also have been derived from a former French-Canadian settler.[4] It was a station on the Michigan Central Railroad, and a post office was established on April 30, 1903.[5] The Pelkie ZIP code 49958 serves areas in the north and northwest of Baraga Township in Baraga County, as well as an area of northeast Laird Township, southwest Elm River Township, and southern Portage Township in Houghton County.[6]
Historic sites
The Hanka Homestead Museum, located north of town, is a 400-acre (1.6 km2) farm which depicts rural Finnish-American life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 19, 1984.
The Historic Pelkie Grade School museum, constructed in 1909, is the only one-room schoolhouse still standing in Baraga County, and is listed on the State Register of Historic Sites on June 10, 1980. The building was used as a school until 1932, then as a town hall, and underwent restoration beginning in 1979. The museum also houses a horse-drawn school bus.
Today, Pelkie is home to the Baraga County Fair, which is held every year on the second weekend in August. The community's primary economic activity is dairy farming, and most of the milk is shipped to processors in Wisconsin.
Preferences
- ↑ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Pelkie, Michigan
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 49958 5-Digit ZCTA, 499 3-Digit ZCTA - Reference Map - American FactFinder, U.S. Census Bureau, 2000 census
External links
- The Historic Pelkie Grade School
- Michigan State Historic listing for Pelkie Grade School
- National Register of Historic Places
- Hanka Homestead in Hunt's Guide to Michigan's Upper Peninsula
- Michigan State Historic listing for Hanka Homestead
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Municipalities and communities of Baraga County, Michigan, United States
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