Petoskey Stone Jewelry

Introducing.........Our Petoskey Stone Series!

For a limited time, Cactus and Coyote is offering Michigan's own stone creatively beaded into necklaces, bracelets and earrings.  This series is not yet listed on our site but will become available within the week.  As soon as the original set was made and advertised on FaceBook...most sold!  We're working at making more as I type....  Photos below are samplings.

What’s a Petoskey Stone?

The Petoskey Stone (aka colony stone) is a coral that lived 350 million years ago when the northern part of Michigan was covered with a sea of warm water. The scientific name is Hexagonaria percarinata (Hexagonaria meaning having six sides).

The soft living tissue of the corallite was called polyp. At the center of the polyp was the food intake opening or mouth. This dark spot, or the eye of the corallite, has been filled with silt or mud that petrified after falling into the openings. Surrounding the opening were tentacles that were used for gathering food and drawing the food into the mouth. This living corallite thrived on plankton which lived in the warm sea.

The Petoskey stone can be found in Michigan from the shores of Traverse City across the state to Alpena. It can be found in gravel pits, on road beds, and mainly on the shores of Lake Michigan around the Petoskey area.  Each year as the ice of Lake Michigan breaks up and the wind shifts the ice back and forth, it pushes a new crop of fossils to shore.

The city of Petoskey was named after an Ottawa Indian Chief, Chief Pet-O-Sega. "Pet-O-Sega" means the "Rays of the Rising Sun". The eye of the stone is seen as the sun, and the lines or tentacles are seen as the rays radiating from the sun.

The stone was named Petoskey because of the abundance of them found on the shores of Little Traverse Bay. In 1965 the State of Michigan adopted the Petoskey stone as Michigan's state stone

For more information, visit http://www.petoskeyarea.com.  Above segments used from this site.

To see these designs like these 'live', and if  you're a southeastern Michigander, we will be at the Costick Center's Holiday Shopping Expo December 9th and 10th in Farmington Hills, Mi.  Admission is FREE!  Santa will be there Saturday!  Food, drinks and prizes!  See the post below for more info or click here to go to Farmington Patch.

Happy Howl-idays!

Annie~