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1989 Map of Traverse City

Name: 1989 Topographic Map of Traverse City
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1990
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1990

About this map

Lake Michigan dominates the northwestern edge of this 1980s landscape, where the deep indentations of Grand Traverse Bay frame the region's urban center at Traverse City. The survey documents a complex network of glacial lakes and river systems, from the massive Houghton Lake and Higgins Lake in the interior to the Manistee River and Au Sable River that define the central watershed.

Settlement patterns show significant growth around the bay and southward along the US Highway 131 corridor toward Cadillac. The interior remains heavily wooded and dedicated to public use, marked by the Camp Grayling Military Reservation and the sprawling Huron National Forest. Along the western shoreline, the protection of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore preserves the landscape near Empire and Manitou Passage, while the rail infrastructure of the Ann Arbor RR and Chesapeake and Ohio RR still connects the coastal and inland communities.