  We have conducted a deep ($15 \la r \la 23$), 20 night survey for transiting
planets in the intermediate age open cluster M37 (NGC 2099) using the Megacam
wide-field mosaic CCD camera on the 6.5m Multiple Mirror Telescope (MMT). In
this paper we describe the observations and data reduction procedures for the
survey and analyze the stellar content and dynamical state of the cluster. By
combining high resolution spectroscopy with existing $BVI_{C}K_{S}$ and new
$gri$ color magnitude diagrams we determine the fundamental cluster parameters:
$t = 485 \pm 28$ Myr without overshooting ($t = 550 \pm 30 {\rm Myr}$ with
overshooting), $E(B-V) = 0.227 \pm 0.038$, $(m-M)_{V} = 11.57 \pm 0.13$ and
$[M/H] = +0.045 \pm 0.044$ which are in good agreement with, though more
precise than, previous measurements. We determine the mass function down to
$0.3 M_{\odot}$ and use this to estimate the total cluster mass of $3640 \pm
170 M_{\odot}$.
