Chums Corner, MI

Chums Corner is a census-designated place and unincorporated community in Blair Township, Grand Traverse County, a few miles south of Traverse City. The 2020 census counted 1,065 residents. Before the highway intersection and strip of everyday services, the area was crossed by the Old Indian Trail used by Anishinaabe travelers between Lake Mitchell and Grand Traverse Bay. Around 1932, Deronda 'Chum' Crandall and his wife Eva opened a gas station and grocery store at the crossroads, and the nickname stuck. Chums Corner still works like a crossroads.

Traverse City Area Public Schools serve the community, while the roads carry people north into Traverse City and south toward the rest of the county. The older trail story and the Crandall store story give the place more depth than its highway signs suggest. The corner is easy to recognize by the services clustered along the roads. Chums Corner is a northern Michigan community built around movement: an old Anishinaabe travel route, a family-run stop, and the modern traffic that keeps the corner busy.