Leelanau Peninsula

M-22 is a famous highway that runs along the coast of the Leelanau Peninsula, as well as further south down Lake Michigan.

Another highway, US 31 between Beulah and Chums Corner, runs parallel to M-72 and M-204, although it lies a few miles south of the base of the Leelanau Peninsula.

Also known as a hemiboreal climate, the peninsula is subject to generally warm, mild summers, and severe winters.

Lake Leelanau, at nearly 21 miles (34 km) long, separates much of the east of the peninsula from the rest, and forms an isthmus with Grand Traverse Bay.

[7] Additional railroads would snake up the peninsula with lines from Lake Ann and Traverse City to Provemont, Suttons Bay, and Northport.

The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, the most renowned part of the peninsula, was authorized on October 21, 1970.

The federal government's stance at the time was that the Great Lakes were the "third coast" and had to be preserved much like Cape Hatteras or Point Reyes, which are National Seashores.Native Americans who first inhabited the area called this land "ke-ski-bi-ag," which means "narrow body of water.

"[10] "Leelanau" was traditionally said to be a Native American word meaning "delight of life,"[11] but the name was more likely invented by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, the United States Indian agent for the territory in the early 19th century, or his wife Jane Johnston Schoolcraft.

Marie, Ontario and Michigan, and Henry learned about the Ojibwe (or Chippewa) through his wife's and mother-in-law's family.

Scholars have established, however, that Jane first used Leelinau as a pen name for her writings in The Literary Voyager, a family magazine which she and her husband wrote together and circulated among friends in the 1820s.

The northern tip of the peninsula is home to Leelanau State Park and the Grand Traverse Light.

Tourists often visit communities such as Glen Arbor, Leland, Northport, and Suttons Bay.