Traverse City is a scenic city of 14,532 people as of 2000 founded in 1852 on the Grand Traverse Bay of Lake Michigan, in the Grand Traverse Bay Area of Northern Michigan. Traverse City is known as the Cherry Capital of the World; around 75 percent of the nation's cherries are grown in Michigan, and most of those come from the Traverse City area. Directly north of Traverse City, the Old Mission Peninsula splits the Grand Traverse Bay in two, with a beautiful windswept landscape and great views of the bay on either side. Slightly to the west, the Leelanau Peninsula, with its charming small towns, forms the "pinkie finger" of the Michigan peninsula, jutting into Lake Michigan. Both peninsulas are prime winemaking regions within the state, and as such are one of the main tourist attractions in the region. Over a million visitors come each year to tour the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, a scenic lakeside park with impressively large sand dunes. It's also a very popular destination for outdoor activities, owing to the proximity of Lake Michigan in summer, the impressive autumn colors, and the high snowfalls in winter.
