Clear Lake, Indiana
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1939 and the latest in 1992. It stands in Clear Lake Township. It lies in ZIP code area 46737. The Survey maps it on the Clear Lake quadrangle. 354 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,047 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresClear Lake grew from 339 to 354 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 | 339 | |
| 2020 | 354 | +15 (+4%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 16 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.
- 1939 USGS Clear Lake quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1940 USGS Clear Lake quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1953 USGS Fort Wayne quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1956 USGS Fort Wayne quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Clear Lake quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1985 USGS Adrian quadrangle1:100000
- 1990 USGS Adrian quadrangle1:100000
- 1992 USGS Clear Lake quadrangle1:24000
In the county-history sources
3,676 words on this townshipHistory of Steuben County, Indiana, Together with... Biographies of Representative Citizens, published 1885 names this settlement in its chapter on Clear Lake Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
The smallest township in the county, occupying the northeastern corner, not only of Steuben County, but also the State of Indiana, is Clear Lake. It is congressional township 38 north, 15 east, and is bounded as follows : On the north by Branch and Hillsdale counties, Mich.; on the east by Hillsdale County, Mich., and Williams County, Ohio; on the south by York Township, and on the west by Fremont Township. It is four miles north and south, by two and three-quarters east and west. Its area is therefore about eleven square miles, or 7,000 acres, nearly 1,000 being covered by water. The township derives its name from the beautiful lake that is situated nearly in the center, on the north banks of which two hotels were built, a few years ago, for the accommodation of tourists. Clear Lake deserves to become still more popular as a resort. It was at one time proposed to build to it a branch from the railroad, but this plan was unfortunately given up. Besides Clear Lake, there are several smaller bodies of water, all connected with it. The soil is of a sandy nature, except in the eouth part of the township, which is of a rich, sandy loam. Most of the township is considered fertile. Tne surface is rolling, and interspersed with small rivulets which empty into the lake.
Passage source: History of Steuben County, Indiana, Together with... Biographies of Representative Citizens, published 1885.
The first white child born in Clear Lake was Noah Douglas, son of Levi and Abigail D juglas, in the winter of 1837, and the second was L )vica C, daughter of Charles and Sally Throop, in January, 1838. The first marriage took place in 1839, Rodney Beach and Charlotte Diuiglas being the contracting parties. The first person who died was Levi Douglas, the event occurring in 1839, and he was shortly followed by Lovica and Marian Throop, both of whom died in the same year. The first school-honse was built at Harris's Corners, on section 33, in 1843, and the school was taught by Ariali Beach.
Passage source: History of Steuben County, Indiana, Together with... Biographies of Representative Citizens, published 1885.
At a picnic held at Clear Lake, July 4, 1858, a terrible accident occurred, in which eleven persons were drowned. This cast a gloom over the occasion, which is yet spoken of by those who were eye-witnesses of this sad occurrence, which was the result of carelessness on the part of the man in charge of the boat, who was under the influence of whisky.
Passage source: History of Steuben County, Indiana, Together with... Biographies of Representative Citizens, published 1885.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Clear Lake Township - it names this place 9 more 9 times.
Fires near this place
6 since 2002Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of Clear Lake between 2002 and 2019, burning about 4 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None was 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
| Natural | 1 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 August 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | BRANCH 01 - MUCK LAKE FIRE |
| 14 May 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | CAMDEN FIRE/RESCUE 0201927 - 2019 |
| 1 May 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | CAMDEN FIRE/RESCUE 0201820 - 2018 |
| 26 March 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | WRIGHT-WALDRON FIRE & AMBULANCE 0000109 - 2019 |
| 18 December 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | CAMDEN FIRE/RESCUE 0201905 - 2018 |
| 15 November 2002 | Natural | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
11 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Clear Lake in 11 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 5 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 1 flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2009 | Flood | Clear Lake | $500,000 | Numerous roads were flooded with standing water ranging from six inches to a few feet in depth. At least 3 roads suffered some degree of wash out. These were County Road 950 East north of U.S. 20, County Road 20 North near County Road 100 East and a portion of West Fox Lake Road. Several lakes in the northern part of the county experienced high water levels, with some damage reported as well as sporadic evacuations. A NWS Cooperative observer in Angola reported 4.3 inches of rain over a 4 day period. |
| May 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | $10,000 | A storage shed was rolled over, with facia and gutters torn off a house. In addition, windows were broken in the house with some minor roof damage. |
| July 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | $5,000 | Trees are down in the area of SR120 and 700 E from thunderstorm outflow wind. |
| March 2023 | Hail | Clear Lake | $5,000 | Golf ball sized hail reported. |
| March 2023 | Hail | Clear Lake | $2,000 | Half dollar size hail reported. |
| March 2023 | Hail | Clear Lake | $2,000 | One inch hail reported. |
| May 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | - | Amateur radio operators reported trees down in the Clear Lake area. |
| May 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | - | Emergency management officials reported two garages were flattened by strong winds in Clear Lake. Trees were also reported falling onto six different homes in Lake Gage area. Numerous other reports of tree damage across the northern part of the county. |
| August 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clear Lake | - | SEVERAL LARGE TREES BLOWN DOWN. |
| May 2003 | Hail | Clear Lake | - | no account filed |
| May 1999 | Hail | Clear Lake | - | no account filed |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| York | 3.4 miles | 16 | |
| Page | 3.7 miles | 16 | |
| Eastpoint Terminal | 5.1 miles | 16 | |
| Fremont | 5.3 miles | 15 | |
| Berlien | 7.3 miles | 15 | |
| Courtney Corner | 7.5 miles | 16 | |
| Metz | 8.4 miles | 14 | |
| Ellis | 8.4 miles | 15 |
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 Clear Lake | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q955422 | 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 432626. 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.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.







