The vision of local developers Bernie Jackson and Gerry Kocis opened as Bowers Harbor Landing (“The Marina”) on January 1, 1990. Composed of 50 docking slips, the Marina is located in the northeast portion of Bowers Harbor on the west arm of Grand Traverse Bay, seven miles north of Traverse City on Old Mission Peninsula. All 50 slips (24 30-foot, 24 40-foot and 2 50-foot) are governed by long-term private leases and are fully-occupied.

 

Rich in history, the Marina occupies the site where in the winter of 1851-52, young S.E. Whittier Wait, just seventeen years of age, taught the first school in the Grand Traverse region aboard the schooner “Madeline”, moored to a dock whose pilings are still visible today, along the shore. When the Mormon “kingdom” on Beaver Island broke up in 1856, the inhabitants scattered throughout the region, and two of them, Nicholas Bower, after whom the Harbor is named, and Royal Tucker became the first settlers at Bowers Harbor. Mariners will recognize Tucker's name, as they round the eponymous point which forms the western border of the harbor.

 

Today the surrounding rolling hills are dotted with cherry orchards and vineyards, with more than a dozen wineries calling Old Mission Peninsula “home”. Ablaze with autumn colors, tourists flock to the area in late-September and October as farmers' roadside fruit stands overflow with nature's bounty. Winter brings cross-country skiing and snow-shoeing through gentle glades, and as temperatures warm, the flow of maple sap heralds the approach of another spectacular boating season.