Traverse City (French "le traverse grand", English "the great crossing", dt. "the big crossing") is the second largest city in northern Michigan with 14,674 inhabitants (as of 2010) after Marquette. It is located on Grand Traverse Bay, which branches off Lake Michigan. This bay is divided by a peninsula, the Old Mission Peninsula.
Prior to European settlement, Traverse City was a summer village for Odawa bands of Anishinaabe, who called the area "kitchiwikwedongsing". The Ojibwe called Traverse City "Wequetong", meaning "head of the bay".
Grand Traverse Bay was named by 18th-century French voyageurs who
made la grande traverse, or "the long crossing", across the mouth of
bay, from present-day Norwood to Northport. The area was French
territory at first, and then part of the Kingdom of Great Britain as the
Province of Quebec. The area was ceded to the United States in 1783
following the Treaty of Paris, becoming part of the Northwest Territory.
In 1847, Captain Horace Boardman of Naperville, Illinois, bought the
land at the delta of the Boardman River (then known as the Ottawa River)
at the head of the west arm of the bay, which at the time was still
inhabited by Native Americans. In 1847, 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 (made up of
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.
Traverse City was originally
part of Omeena County, which was originally set off in 1840 from
Michilimackinac County. The county remained unorganized, lacking a
central government until 1851, when it was reorganized as Grand Traverse
County. The newly designated county government was assigned a county
seat at Boardman's Mills, a location in present-day downtown 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, the railroad opened to Traverse City via a branch
line of the Traverse City Railroad Company from the Grand Rapids &
Indiana Railroad at Walton Junction. The railroad entered Traverse City
along the Boardman River and Boardman Lake, terminating at a station
along Grand Traverse Bay at the corner of present-day Grandview Parkway
and Park Street. This new transportation line from southern Michigan
paved the way for settlement and industrial development in the area.
Then, in 1881, Traverse City was incorporated as a village. This marked
the beginning of the town's major commercial development.
In
1890, another railroad line was extended from Baldwin to Traverse City
via Copemish and Interlochen. This line served lumber companies,
primarily the Buckley & Douglas Lumber Company, and was used to haul
logs from the vast forests of northwest Michigan to sawmills in Manistee
and Traverse City. Two years later, a new railroad was extended from
Traverse City: one line extended along the bay into Leelanau County,
curving south to an existing branch line at Lake Ann. The other line was
extended east to present-day Williamsburg and then to Charlevoix and
Petoskey. This railroad was primarily for tourists.
In 1881, the
Northern Michigan Asylum (later Traverse City State Hospital) was
established to add to the mental hospitals established in Kalamazoo and
Pontiac, and to meet the need for a third mental hospital in Michigan.
Perry Hanna, a prominent Michigan Republican at the time, used his
political influence to secure its location in Traverse City. Under the
supervision of noted architect Gordon W. Lloyd, the first building,
known as Building 50, was constructed in the Victorian-Italian style
according to the Kirkbride Plan. The hospital opened in 1885 and
admitted 43 patients; the facility expanded under Dr. James Decker
Munson, who served as its first director from 1885 to 1924; between 1887
and 1903, 12 residential cottages and two clinics were built to meet the
specific needs of male and female patients The facility was the city's
largest employer. The institution became the city's largest employer and
contributed to its growth. The hospital was established to care for the
mentally ill, but its use expanded during outbreaks of tuberculosis,
typhoid, diphtheria, influenza, and polio. It also cared for the
elderly, served as a rehabilitation center for drug addicts, and was
used to train nurses.
On May 18, 1895, Traverse City was
incorporated as a city. Perry Hanna served as the first and third mayor
of the village, and then as Traverse City's first mayor.
The first National Cherry Festival was held in Traverse City in 1925.
It was first called "Blessing of the Blossoms" and held in the spring to
attract people during the blooming season. With the exception of the
years before and during World War II, this tradition has been carried on
since in Traverse City. The legislature moved the date of the festival
to the summer, and it attracts tourists from 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 2004 the legislature added
"Blossom Days", again as a spring festival.
Also in 1925, Munson
Medical Center opened, and has since grown to serve much of Northern
Michigan and serves as one of Traverse City's largest employers.
In 1929, Traverse City's first airport, Ransom Field, opened, offering
flights to Grand Rapids. It closed in 1936, when the new Traverse City
Airport (now called Cherry Capital Airport) was opened. In 1953 the
grounds of Ransom Field were redeveloped as Memorial Gardens Cemetery.
In 1934, the original Traverse City High School building burnt down,
with no casualties. For three years, while the high school was being
rebuilt, classes were moved to the Perry Hannah House, the former
residence of the city's founder. Classes were moved back to the new
school building in September 1937. In 1960, the high school was moved
from downtown Traverse City to a new college-style campus on the grounds
of Northwestern Michigan College, which opened a few years prior in
1951. The former high school building was converted to Traverse City
Junior High. In 1997, the high school split into Traverse City Central
and Traverse City West High Schools due to extreme overcrowding at the
1960s building.
In 1989, the Traverse City State Hospital closed,
leaving hundreds without jobs, massive abandoned buildings, and many
homeless former patients. Since 2000, the Minervini Group has undertaken
the project of renovating the entire property into a social center,
including many restaurants, retail spaces, office space, and residential
space.
Traverse City is surrounded by a lot of original and untouched nature
and water, such as rivers, lakes and bays.
There is a zoo and
marina as well as a historic downtown area. There are also 50 art
galleries and museums in and around the city.
The Traverse City
Film Festival, which has been held at the end of July or beginning of
August every year since 2005, has also become very important. The
festival was created by Michigan-born director Michael Moore, along with
Doug Stanton, John Robert Williams, Susan Brown and Jason Pollock.
Traverse City has its own airport, Cherry Capital Airport, which is
also served by major airlines such as American Airlines, Delta Air Lines
and United Airlines (mainly from Chicago and Detroit). It is 305 miles
from Chicago and 242 miles from Detroit.
Of the original three
daily buses that connected Traverse City to the rest of Michigan, only
one operates today. The Indian Trails Bus departs from St. Ignace and
departs Traverse City bound for Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Chicago.
Traverse City does not have a freeway connection. The nearest
interchange is either in Cadillac (about half an hour south) or about an
hour east of Traverse City.
Traverse City bills itself as the "Cherry Capital of the World" and hosts the National Cherry Festival for eight days each July. A special event in this area is the cherry blossom time of the 3 million cherry trees, then the whole area seems to be wrapped in a white veil. In autumn, the Indian Summer can also be admired here.
Harold Sherman (1898–1987), writer
David Wayne (1914–1995), film
and television actor
William Milliken (1922–2019), Governor of
Michigan 1969–1983
Alma Routsong (1924–1996), writer
Erwin
Dumbrille (1930–2013), film editor
Dan Majerle (born 1965),
basketball player and coach
Jeremy Davies (born 1969), film and
television actor
Barry Watson (born 1974), film and television actor
Craig Thompson (born 1975), comic book artist
Brian Holden (born
1985), actor