Palm size Petoskey Stones

This unusual stone is actually the fossilized remains of a colonial coral, Hexagonaria percarinate, which lived in shallow seas during the Devonian Period 350 million years ago. The stone resembles ordinary limestone but when wet or polished, the distinctive pattern of the six-sided coral fossil emerges. Petoskey Stones are concentrated in Traverse Bay and Little Traverse Bay around Petoskey, Michigan. Petoskey Stone is named after a Native American Indian Ottawa chief, Chief Pet-O-Sega, which means “Ray of the Rising Sun.” The eye of the stone is seen as the sun, and the line or tentacles are seen as the rays radiating from the sun. In 1965 it was named the state fossil of Michigan.