Bear Flat, Arizona
27 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1998. It stands in the Payson census division. It lies in ZIP code area 85541. It stands on Bear Flat. The Survey maps it on the Promontory Butte quadrangle. 11 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,964 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresBear Flat fell from 18 to 11 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 18 | |
| 2020 | 11 | -7 (-39%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
12 surveys from 27 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1887 USGS Verde quadrangle1:250000
- 1892 USGS Verde quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1934 USGS Promontory Butte quadrangle1:62500
- 1939 USGS Promontory Butte quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1952 USGS Promontory Butte quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1954 USGS Holbrook quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Holbrook quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Holbrook quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Holbrook quadrangle1:250000
- 1973 USGS Promontory Butte quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1981 USGS Payson quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1998 USGS Promontory Butte quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
430 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 430 fires within 5 miles of Bear Flat between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,496 acres in total. 262 started naturally. 9 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Natural | 262 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 53 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 44 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 20 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 15 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 9 |
| Smoking | 9 |
| Debris and open burning | 8 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 5 |
| Fireworks | 3 |
| Other causes | 2 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 1994 | Natural | under an acre | Tonto National Forest | not named |
| 8 September 2001 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest | PROMONTORY BUTTE |
| 6 September 1995 | Natural | 7.0 acres | Tonto National Forest | LEO |
| 5 September 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Tonto National Forest | SEE |
| 4 September 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Christopher-Kohl's Fire District | NOT NAMED |
| 4 September 2004 | Natural | under an acre | Tonto National Forest | BOOT |
| 30 September 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Christopher-Kohl's Fire District | 194 |
| 30 September 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Tonto National Forest | KOHLS |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
4 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Bear Flat: 3 prospects, 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Iron, Gold, Copper, Uranium. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christopher Mtn Hematite | Iron | Occurrence | ||
| Goose Egg Claim | Gold | Prospect | ||
| Hillside Clai3 | Copper | Prospect | ||
| Mormon Lake Uranium Claims | Uranium | Prospect |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thompson Draw Summer Homes Unit One | 2.4 miles | 27 | |
| Kohls Ranch | 2.6 miles | 27 | |
| Thompson Draw Summer Homes Unit Two | 3.0 miles | 27 | |
| Hunter Creek Ranch | 3.1 miles | 27 | |
| Christopher Creek | 3.1 miles | 27 | |
| Tonto Village | 3.8 miles | 25 | |
| Mountain Meadow | 3.8 miles | 27 | |
| Mountain Meadows | 3.9 miles | 27 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Bear Flat | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q5843072 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 40865. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.











