Blogs from Traverse City, Michigan, United States, North America - page 5

Traverse City, incorporated in 1895 with settlers arriving as early as 1840, was originally called “Queen City of the North.” The very first inhabitants of the area were the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi Indians. Traverse City, in essence, was their hunting and meeting place. These three tribes were so amicable and sociable that they came to be known as the Three Brothers. White settlers began to arrive in the 1840’s and saw great potential in the area for a lumber industry. A lumbering boom shaped the city but the boom itself exhausted the lumber supply by 1915. This development forced the considerable Indian people into reservation situations. Today the settlement pattern reveals a dominating white population in Traverse City and surrounding areas with pockets of Indians and Hispanics outside the city. The Indians have been granted ... read more

There are several lakes in and around Traverse City. Grand Traverse Bay is right next to the city, which of course gets it water from Lake Michigan. The landform features hills and flats with land holding a sandy soil, some areas having clay deposits. These soils do not hold water well making agriculture more difficult as the soil does not hold moisture well. In general, the climate is a four-season one and the big influence on the seasons, their extremes etc., is Traverse City’s proximity to Lake Michigan. Regarding severe weather, blizzards and frost, both of which can damage crops, are the most problematic for the area. Unique to the area are petotsky stones which is a rock, often pebble-shaped, that is composed of a fossilized coral. These stones were formed as a result of ... read more