Pelkie is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Baraga County Baraga County ( ) is a county in the Upper Peninsula in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 8,158, making it Michigan's fifth-least populous county. The county seat is L'Anse. The county is named after Bishop ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. The community is on the Sturgeon River in the northeast part of Baraga Township. Pelkie was settled by

French Canadians French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fren ...

in about 1885, and was first known as "King's Landing" and was renamed Pelkie after an early settler, William Pelkie.

Finns Finns or Finnish people ( fi, suomalaiset, ) are a Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland. Finns are traditionally divided into smaller regional groups that span several countries adjacent to Finland, both those who are native to these ...

who settled there initially called the place Kyrö, after the place they came from in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

; however, Kyro Location is now regarded as a distinct town from Pelkie. The name became Kuro after a railroad was built through the area. Because many Finns settled in the area, the Finnish name Pelkinen has been suggested as the original. However, the name actually was derived from a former French-Canadian settler. It was a station on the Mineral Range Railroad, and a post office was established on April 30, 1903. 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.49958 5-Digit ZCTA, 499 3-Digit ZCTA - Reference Map - American FactFinder
U.S. Census Bureau, 2000 census

Demographics

Historic sites

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.

References

External links

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20110606132629/http://www.mcgi.state.mi.us/hso/sites/2706.htm Michigan State Historic listing for Hanka Homestead {{authority control Census-designated places in Michigan Census-designated places in Baraga County, Michigan Finnish-American history Finnish-American culture in Michigan French-Canadian culture in Michigan Unincorporated communities in Baraga County, Michigan Unincorporated communities in Michigan