A Home for Hemingway

Nov. 13, 2015

Perhaps you’ve heard about our issue. A generous donor came forward earlier this year and offered to commission a statue of Ernest Hemingway to be placed in the City of Petoskey. Hemingway spent the first 22 summers of his life in the Petoskey area living in a family cottage on Walloon Lake. The City of Petoskey was the backdrop for much of his early writing. The statue would be of a young Hemingway waiting to catch the train to Walloon Lake.

This same donor gave the city a statue of our town’s namesake, Chief Ignatius Petoskey, which now stands at the edge of our downtown overlooking Little Traverse Bay. The statue of Chief Petoskey has been a beautiful addition to our community and a much photographed icon, just as I expect the statue of Hemingway would be. However, it’s very likely that it’s not going to happen.

It all comes down to real estate. The process started as it should with the donor approaching the city, and then the city working with the donor to find a suitable location. The location they found is in the north end of Pennsylvania Park, on the east side of the park along the railroad tracks. The land alongside those tracks will become part of a linear park system for biking and walking from one end of the downtown all the way out to Bay View; the statue would be a part of that linear park.

The location was approved by the Parks and Recreation Commission and endorsed by Petoskey’s Downtown Management Board. Then it went to City Council, where members felt it should be placed in a different location. A special council meeting was held and other potential sites were toured. The council settled on a site in the northwest corner of the same park, very close to the Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council Building and across the street from Stafford’s Perry Hotel. The Petoskey City Council voted to accept the statue at that location.

But the donor wants it in the original east side location. His vision is for people to shake Mr. Hemingway’s hand as he waits for his train to Walloon. He says it should be there; otherwise he’s not willing to make the donation. The city council says it should be in their location, or they’re not willing to accept the donation. So that’s where it stands.

In fairness, two members of the council would support either location, so it’s really three votes that are preventing this from happening. Also in fairness, I personally like either location and would be happy to have it placed in either spot. We’re literally a couple of hundred feet apart from an agreement. There’s still hope that a council member could switch their vote and concede to the eastside location the donor prefers, the one that the Parks and Recreation Commission has approved, and that the Downtown Management Board has endorsed. Hopefully by the time you read this, that will have happened and my comments will have been needlessly made; but I’m not hopeful.

People from neighboring communities have been asking me about this issue. They ask, “Why wouldn’t Petoskey want this statue?” The answer is, “We do!” The feedback I’ve heard from the Petoskey community is overwhelming in its support of the statue, no matter where it is located. Clearly, other city boards and commissions have given it their support, as has the Petoskey Regional Chamber of Commerce, where I work. Unfortunately, we’re trapped in a disagreement over location that is miles apart in its argument, but less than 200 feet in actual distance — and I fear that distance is just too great.

Somehow I think Mr. Hemingway would be amused by the irony of it all.

Carlin Smith is the president of the Petoskey Regional Chamber of Commerce