Becoming Petoskey

This non-fiction narrative is a story of history, mystery, and adventure beginning in August 1873 in northern Michigan when the first rails were laid bringing train travel to an area that would later be known as Petoskey. The story is based on two lengthy letters written by an unnamed voyager who witnesses and worked laying the rails. He told his mother in an observant style, about the places he saw and the people he met along with his reflection as an impressionable young man making his way through his experiences. These letters were discovered a hundred years later and over 200 miles from Petoskey by another young man who found them tucked between the pages of a book he bought in an obscure Lansing second hand store. The discovery of these letters would start a quest for answers and pose more questions that would occupy 40 years of his life.