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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 Grape s 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, vinyards, a nearby National Lakeshore , prodigious Snowfall , nearby Ski resorts and thousands of square miles of surrounding forests make Traverse City Michigan's most popular tourist destination, ahead of nearby Petoskey and Ludington . Traverse City is a Home Rule Charter city, 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. EDUCATION
MEDIA 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. 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 Station s licensed directly to the city:
Additionally, WGTU operates a station carried on Northern Michigan Cable Television systems, but not transmitted over the air:
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:
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.1 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: 2
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 . 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 Mile s (4.8 Km ) east of downtown on 47 Acre s (19 Hectare s) 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 . The Beach Bums are a team in the Frontier League. Their first season begins in May 2006. 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.3 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. 4 The city is a junction point for several highways:
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. 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 Peninsula s. 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 Km&2 (8.7 Mi&2 ). 21.8 km&2 (8.4 mi&2) of it is land and 0.8 km&2 (0.3 mi&2) of it is water. The total area is 3.45% 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/km&2 (1,728.7/mi&2). There were 6,842 housing units at an average density of 314.1/km&2 (813.9/mi&2). 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. 1.67% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 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. 8.4% of the population and 4.8% of families were below the Poverty Line . 7.2% of those under the age of 18 and 7.9% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line. NOTABLE PEOPLE Traverse City is the birthplace of several celebrities:
Although not a resident, the Singer-songwriter Jewel performed in Traverse City's Coffeehouse s during the time she attended high school at the nearby Interlochen Center For The Arts . SEE ALSO
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