Traverse City, Michigan Informations

Traverse City (/ˈtrævərs ˈsɪti/ or locally /ˈtrævər.sɪti/) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Grand Traverse County, although a small portion extends into Leelanau County. It is the largest city in the 21-county Northern Michigan region. The population was 14,674 at the 2010 census, with 143,372 in the Traverse City micropolitan area.

The Traverse City area is the largest producer of tart cherries in the United States. Near the time of cherry harvest, the city hosts the annual week-long National Cherry Festival in the first full week of July, attracting approximately 500,000 visitors annually. The surrounding countryside also produces grapes, and is one of the centers of wine production in the Midwest.Tourism, both summer and winter, is another key industry. The Traverse City area features varied natural attractions, including freshwater beaches, vineyards, a National Lakeshore, downhill skiing areas, and numerous forests. In 2009, TripAdvisor named Traverse City the number two small town travel destination in the United States.In 2012, the city was listed among the 10 best places to retire in the country by U.S. News and World Report.

Before European colonists and the Northwest Territory, Traverse City was occupied by the Ojibwe and Ottawa people. Many locations in the Michigan area used to have native names. Traverse City was called "wequetong" which means "at the head of the bay" This area was an Indian camp near what is now Clinch Park in downtown Traverse City. Over time, this camp was slowly abandoned.

After the colonists came in, they discovered the Grand Traverse Bay. The bay earned its name from 18th-century French voyageurs who made la grande traverse,[a] or "the long crossing", across the mouth of bay. The area was owned by the French, followed by Great Britain as the Province of Quebec. After 1776, the area was owned by the Americans. On Old Mission peninsula, Rev Peter Doughtery started the first permanent settlement in 1839. This was called "Grand Traverse"

In 1847, Captain Boardman of Naperville, Illinois, purchased the land at the mouth of the Boardman River at the head of the west arm of the bay, where the Indian camp was. During that year the captain, his son, and their employees built a dwelling and sawmill near the mouth of the river. In 1851 the Boardmans sold the sawmill to Hannah, Lay and Co (Perry Hannah, Albert Tracy Lay and James Morgan), who improved the mill greatly. The increased investment in the mill attracted additional settlers to the new community. Perry Hannah today is known as the founding father of Traverse City

As of 1853, the only operating post office in the Grand Traverse Bay region was the one located at Old Mission, which was then known as "Grand Traverse". While in Washington, D.C. in 1852, Mr. Lay had succeeded in getting the U.S. Post Office to authorize a new post office at his newer settlement. As the newer settlement had become known as "Grand Traverse City", after the Grand Traverse Bay, Lay proposed this name for its post office, but the Post Office Department clerk suggested dropping the "Grand" from the name, as to limit confusion between this new office and the one at nearby Old Mission. Mr. Lay agreed to the new, shortened name of "Traverse City" for the post office, and the village took on this name. Also around this time, the first cherry trees were being planted on the Old Mission Peninsula, something the peninsula is widely known for today.

In December 1872, rail service arrived in Traverse City via a Traverse City Railroad Company spur from the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad line at Walton Junction. This opened up the area to settlement and industrial development. Many more people started living here, and in 1881, Traverse City was incorporated as a village. This began the major commercial growth of the town.

In 1895, Traverse City was incorporated as a city.

1925 was the year of the first National Cherry Festival, then called "Blessing of the Blossoms". This tradition has carried on in Traverse City (except interwar[clarification needed]) since, and has become a popular gathering around the state. During the week the festival takes place, the population of Traverse City rises from about 15,000 to about 500,000.

In 1929, Traverse City's first airport, Ransom Field, opened in what is today Memorial Gardens Cemetery on US 31 (now Veterans Drive). The airport offered flights to Grand Rapids.

The later half of the 20th century saw many older things from the area close. Ransom Field, then renamed Traverse City Airport, closed in 1969, when Cherry County Airport was opened. Two drive in theaters in the vicinity (Sundowner Drive-In and Traverse Drive-In) closed, as well as three normal theaters in the area. With this, the Cherryland Mall and Grand Traverse Mall opened in these years.

In 2005, the first Traverse City Film Festival was held in downtown Traverse City by Michael Moore. In 2015 and 2016, Traverse City was called the best small town in America by Livability.com.

Traverse City is a part of the greater Northern Michigan region. The city is the main inland port of the Grand Traverse Bay—a long, natural harbor separated from the waters of Lake Michigan by the Leelanau Peninsula, and divided longitudinally almost evenly by a narrow peninsula of tiered hillsides and farmland called Old Mission Peninsula.

The most prominent of the city's waterways is the Boardman River. Along with Boardman Lake, the river is part of the Boardman River Watershed. The Boardman's 287-square-mile (740 km2) watershed contributes one-third of the water volume to the bay and is one of Michigan's top-ten fisheries, with more than 36 miles (58 km) of its 179 miles (288 km) designated as a Blue Ribbon trout fishery. It is also a state-designated "Natural River". Recently, a large project was finished on the Boardman.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 8.66 square miles (22.43 km2), of which, 8.33 square miles (21.57 km2) of it is land and 0.33 square miles (0.85 km2) is water.

Traverse City, like most of Grand Traverse County many other cities in the United States, is laid out in a grid plan. Major streets run east-west and north-south. North-south streets are named after people, trees, and geographical locations. East-west streets are named after numbers and people.

Traverse City has many fairly tall buildings for a small city. The tallest building is the Park Place Hotel (at 9 stories), although recently, many proposals have been made to build taller buildings. One of these was the River West building, which did not end up being built.

Traverse City has many beaches and public parks. A notable example is Clinch Park, a public park, beach, and splash pad. This park can be very congested during the summer months and especially during the National Cherry Festival.

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