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==