Traverse City, Michigan

Traverse City is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the largest in the 21-county Northern Michigan region. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 14,532. It is the county seat of Grand Traverse County ⁶. Despite its modest population, Traverse City functions as the major commercial nexus for a seven-county area totaling over 7,000 km² and, along with cross-peninsula counterpart Alpena, is one of Northern Lower Michigan's two anchor cities.

Traverse City is the self-proclaimed Cherry Capital of the World, holding an annual week-long Cherry Festival the first full week in July to celebrate the fact. Besides cherries, the surrounding countryside produces grapes and is one of the centers of wine production in the Midwest. Tourism, both summer and winter, is another key industry. Freshwater beaches, a mild summer climate, upscale golf resorts, vineyards, a nearby National Lakeshore, prodigious snowfall, nearby ski resorts and thousands of square miles of surrounding forests make Traverse City (based on AAA's 2005 TripTik® requests) the second most popular tourist city in the state behind Mackinaw City.^*

Traverse City is a home rule charter city under the Home Rule Cities Act, incorporated on May 18, 1895. The city is governed by six commissioners and a mayor, elected at large. Together they comprise a seven-member legislative body. An appointed city manager serves as chief executive for city operations.

History

Traverse City is named after the Grand Traverse Bay, which the city heads. The bay was in turn named "Le Grande Traverse" by French voyagers that explored the region in the 18th century.

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. 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 & Co, who improved the mill greatly. The increased investment in the mill attracted additional settlers to the new community.

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 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," Lay proposed this name for its post office, but the USPS clerk suggested dropping the "Grand," in the name, as to limit confusion between this new office and the one at nearby Old Mission. Mr. Lay agreed to the name "Traverse City" for the post office, and the village took on this name.

Geography

The city sits at the head of Grand Traverse Bay, a long protected water of Lake Michigan. The city sits at the base of the Leelanau and Old Mission Peninsulas. The Boardman River forms Boardman Lake in the city before draining into the Bay.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 22.5 km² (8.7 mi²). 21.8 km² (8.4 mi²) of it is land and 0.8 km² (0.3 mi²) of it (3.45%) is water.

Demographics

As of the census ² of 2000, there were 14,532 people, 6,443 households, and 3,485 families residing in the city. The population density was 667.2/km² (1,728.7/mi²). There were 6,842 housing units at an average density of 314.1/km² (813.9/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 96.00% White, 0.65% African American, 0.98% Native American, 0.50% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.48% from other races, and 1.36% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.67% of the population.

There were 6,443 households out of which 24.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.7% were married couples living together, 11.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 45.9% were non-families. 35.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.15 and the average family size was 2.82.

In the city the population was spread out with 20.3% under the age of 18, 10.8% from 18 to 24, 29.6% from 25 to 44, 24.1% from 45 to 64, and 15.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 90.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $37,330, and the median income for a family was $46,912. Males had a median income of $31,587 versus $22,512 for females. The per capita income for the city was $22,247. About 4.8% of families and 8.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.2% of those under age 18 and 7.9% of those age 65 or over.

Education

Northwestern Michigan College
Traverse Bay Area Career-Tech Center
Traverse City Central High School
Traverse City Christian High School
Traverse City High School (Alternative High School)
Traverse City Saint Francis High School (a private Catholic school)
Traverse City West Senior High (established 1997 by a division of Traverse City Central)
Western Michigan University - branch campus
Interlochen Arts Academy - Fine Arts Boarding and Day School located 10 minutes out of Traverse City.

Media

Print

The Traverse City Record-Eagle is northwest lower Michigan's newspaper of record. It is circulated in the thirteen counties surrounding the city and is the only newspaper in all of Northern Michigan to produce a Sunday edition. It is owned by Ottaway Newspapers Inc., the community newspaper subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company.

Daily editions of the Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, and Grand Rapids Press also are available on news stands throughout the region. Northern Express Weekly is the largest weekly newspaper in Northern Michigan, with distribution of up to 30,000 copies in 13 counties. It is owned and published by George Foster and Robert Downes.

At least two magazines are published in Traverse City, including Third Eye Magazine, a bi-monthly periodical focusing on social and political issues as well as art, and Traverse, published monthly with a focus on regional interests.

Television

Traverse City is the largest city in the Traverse City-Cadillac-Sault Ste. Marie Designated Market Area, the largest television market in area east of the Mississippi River. Accordingly, most stations in this vast region are broadcast simultaneously on widely-spaced transmitters on separate channels.

Traverse City has two television stations licensed directly to the city:

Channel 7: WPBN 7&4 (NBC) (Simulcast on Channel 4, Cheboygan)
Channel 29: WGTU 29&8 (ABC) (Simulcast on Channel 8, Sault Ste. Marie)

Additionally, WGTU operates a station carried on Northern Michigan cable television systems, but not transmitted over the air:

Channel 61: WB61 (The WB)

The city also has a low power rebroadcast transmitter of Mount Pleasant's PBS affiliate, WCMU-TV, operating on channel 46 (W46AD).

Stations licensed to nearby Cadillac are considered local to Traverse City:

Channel 9: WWTV 9&10 (CBS) (Simulcast on Channel 10, Sault Ste. Marie)
Channel 33: WFQX 33 (FOX, also shows some UPN programming)

Cable television service is provided within Traverse City and many outlying communities by Charter Communications Inc. Public access programming is provided on channel 2.

Radio

The Traverse City area is the primary target of nearby Interlochen Center for the Arts's NPR member station Interlochen Public Radio. IPR is one of the largest and furthest-broadcasting stations with a town the size of Traverse City's as its base; it serves a large portion of Northwest Lower Michigan via two stations:

IPR Music Radio (WIAA-FM 88.7)
IPR News Radio (WICA-FM 91.5)

Tourism

The National Cherry Festival, held during the first full week of July every year, is the main tourist draw to Traverse City. The festival features parades, fireworks, live music, and cherries. It is estimated that the Grand Traverse region produces up to 360,000,000 pounds of cherries annually. The largest variety of cherry produced is the Montmorency cherry, or the "pie cherry". Other cherries grown in the region include the Ulster, or sweet cherry, and the Balaton (from Lake Balaton in Hungary). A cherry situated between the Montmorency and Ulster in terms of color and taste.

The [http://www.glbconference.org Great Lakes Bioneers Conference is a satellite conference of the ground breaking Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, California. The conference is held annually on the third weekend of October. Bioneers is a term combining the pioneer spirit with the idea of ecological solutions to sustainable living. The Traverse City conference highlights the individuals and organizations in the Great Lakes bioregion that are forging ahead towards sustainable living solutions based on environmental, and socially just, alternatives. The conference is held on the campus of Northwestern Michigan College.

Traverse City is also a popular destination for boating, sailing, wine tasting, and tourists wishing to see autumn colors in bus-driven "color tours." Numerous golf and ski resorts nearby bring in large numbers of tourists.

The small Traverse City State Park, with about 250 campsites, is located some three miles (4.8 km) east of downtown on 47 acres (19 hectares) including a quarter mile beach on the East Bay arm of Grand Traverse Bay.

The Leelanau Peninsula directly west of Traverse City contains many attractions, including the Leelanau Sands Casino in Peshawbestown and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

The inaugural Traverse City Film Festival was held July 27–31, 2005, in venues around downtown Traverse City, including a theater renovated by film festival volunteers. First-run feature and documentaries were screened, panel discussions were planned and free family movies at the Open Space were scheduled. A driving force of the Traverse City Film Festival was Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore.

Sports

Traverse City is home to a minor league baseball team, the Traverse City Beach Bums, who play at Wuerfel Park. The Beach Bums are a team in the Frontier League.

Transportation

With a new terminal completed in 2004, Cherry Capital Airport provides regularly scheduled passenger airline service to Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis and seasonally to New York as well as to smaller Michigan destinations to the north. Adjacent to the airport is a United States Coast Guard air station (CGAS), responsible for both maritime and land-based search and rescue operations in the northern Great Lakes region.

Traverse City also has a public transportation system, known as BATA (Bay Area Transportation Authority) which serves most of the Grand Traverse region. BATA recently revealed its first hybrid bus in December, 2005.

The city is a junction point for several highways:

U.S. Highway 31 cuts west across the base of the Leelanau peninsula to Benzonia before continuing south to Manistee and other points on the Lake Michigan shore. Northwards, it continues along the east shore of Grand Traverse Bay to Charlevoix and Petoskey, ending just before reaching Mackinaw City and the Mackinac Bridge.
Michigan State Highway 37 runs almost due south through the Manistee National Forest to Grand Rapids. It continues north up Old Mission Peninsula to end at Old Mission Point in the middle of Grand Traverse Bay.
Michigan State Highway 72 runs east-west, connecting with Empire and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore 22 mile west and with U.S. Highway 131, 25 miles east.
Michigan State Highway 22 follows the Lake Michigan shoreline around the Leelanau Peninsula, providing a scenic drive.

The Tuscola and Saginaw Bay Railway (TSBY) provides freight rail service to the Traverse City area on track owned by the state of Michigan. The tracks were once owned by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (ex-Pere Marquette Railway) and the Pennsylvania Railroad (ex-Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad) but were purchased by the state in the late 1970s and early 1980s to preserve rail service in the area. Current freight traffic includes fruit/perishables, scrap metal, and lumber.

Regular intercity passenger train service ended on October 29, 1966, after the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) discontinued Grand Rapids - Traverse City - Bay View service. Since then, excursion passengers trains have operated in and out of Traverse City on an irregular basis. Recently, Lake Central Rail Tours has operated a summer excursion during the Cherry Festival. On May 11, 1996, the Grand Traverse Dinner Train began year round service from the Traverse City depot to Williamsburg and to Walton Junction. Unfortunately, dinner train service was suspended in 2004 after a derailment and the company entered into a bitter contract dispute with the Tuscola and Saginaw Bay Railway. The dinner train equipment currently sits near the Traverse City depot waiting disposition.

Notable people

Traverse City is the birthplace of several celebrities:

Mark Brammer, Michigan State University football player who received the All-America accolade in 1978.
Jeremy Davies, an actor featured in Saving Private Ryan, Solaris, and CQ.
Dan Majerle, former NBA basketball player who played for the Phoenix Suns and the Miami Heat
Kenny Oleson, guitarist for the pop music artist Kid Rock
Carter Oosterhouse, carpenter on reality TV show Trading Spaces
William G. Milliken, Republican Governor of Michigan from 1969 to 1983
Martha Teichner, CBS News correspondent
Craig Thompson, cartoonist and graphic novelist best known for Blankets
Barry Watson, an actor whose credits include the television program 7th Heaven
David Wayne, Hollywood film and Broadway theatre actor

Although not a resident, the singer-songwriter Jewel performed in Traverse City's coffeehouses during the time she attended high school at the nearby Interlochen Center for the Arts.

Not born in TC, but part-time resident - Jazz Legend Bob James ^* most famous for theme song "Angela" from 70's hit show "Taxi", and sampled by numerous hip-hop artists.