About Traverse City, Michigan (courtesy of Wikipedia)
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 County6, although a small portion lies in Leelanau County. 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.[1]
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.
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.
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.
The Great Lakes Bioneers Conference is held annually in the third week of October on the campus of Northwestern Michigan College. The conference is a satellite conference of the Bioneer Conference in San Rafael, California. The Traverse City site focuses on durable ecological and socially just solutions to a diverse set of issues in the Great Lakes bioregion, and attracts visitors from across the watershed.
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