Chums Corner

History

Historically, the area that is now Chums Corner was traversed by what is now known as the Old Indian Trail, a trail which serviced travel for the Anishinaabe between Lake Mitchell, near Cadillac, and Grand Traverse Bay, in Traverse City. Around 1932, Deronda "Chum" Crandall and his wife Eva began operating a gas station and a grocery store at a major highway intersection a few miles south of Traverse City. Over the years the intersection became known as "Chum's Corners". Chum sold the business and retired in 1953, and died in Traverse City in early 1959. The community of Chums Corner was listed as a newly-organized census-designated place for the 2010 census, meaning it was given officially defined boundaries and population statistics for the first time. The population at this time was 946. In 2020, Chasten Buttigieg, spouse of United States Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, wrote I Have Something to Tell You, a memoir which includes anecdotes about Buttigieg's childhood growing up in a neighborhood in Chums Corner.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of , all land. * enters from the west and takes a 90° angle north in the center of the community. * runs south–north through the center of the community and merges concurrent with U.S. Route 31.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  11,954
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  10,028
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  9,695
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  8,571
• American Goldfinch

  Spinus tristis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  8,565
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  8,509
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  8,174
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  8,134