The Little Traverse History Museum occupies the old freight depot on Waterfront Park, a handsome building right on Little Traverse Bay. The museum covers the history of the Petoskey area from the Ottawa people's occupation through the logging era, the resort period, and the present. There are good sections on the local Odawa Nation, who called this area home for centuries before European settlement.
Exhibits include Petoskey stone geology, Native American artifacts, Victorian resort memorabilia, and local maritime history. The museum is small enough to cover thoroughly in an hour, and the lakefront setting makes a visit easy to combine with a waterfront walk. The dock outside the museum is a good vantage point for Little Traverse Bay.