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Bear Lake, Michigan

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1983. It stands in Bear Lake Township. It lies in ZIP code area 49614. The Survey maps it on the Bear Lake quadrangle. 342 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 791 feet above sea level.

Bear Lake within Manistee County

Population over time

2 figures

Bear Lake grew from 286 to 342 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.

YearPeople Change
2010286
2020342+56 (+20%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 9 printed sheets

Matched 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.

Fires near this place

12 since 2004

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of Bear Lake between 2004 and 2020, burning about 87 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/undetermined3
Debris and open burning3
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Recreation and ceremony2
Equipment and vehicle use1
Natural1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
20 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresHuron-Manistee National ForestMAIDENS ROAD
5 August 2004Debris and open burning70 acresMichigan Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
14 July 2019Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesBEAR LAKE FD 0019086 - 2019
14 July 2019Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesBEAR LAKE FD 0019087 - 2019
3 June 2010Natural10 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesMANISTEE 01
13 June 2020Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreHuron-Manistee National ForestZIEHM
24 May 2007Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreHuron-Manistee National ForestPOPLAR ROAD
18 May 2018Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesBEAR LAKE FD 0018075 - 2018

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Manistee County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Bear Lake: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Fire Clay (Refractory). Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Klein's Clay PitFire Clay (Refractory)Past Producer

Every working recorded in Manistee County

Storms near this place

11 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bear Lake in 11 storm reports between 1998 and 2024: 8 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 2009Thunderstorm WindBear Lake$2,000Trees were blown down along Bear Lake, and on Wallaker Road northeast of Bear Lake.
October 2006Thunderstorm WindBear Lake$1,000Power lines downed.
April 2024HailBear Lake-Three-quarter-inch sized hail reported.
April 2024HailBear Lake-Report of three-quarter inch hail.
September 2022HailBear Lake-Bear Lake area. Report relayed by local broadcast media.
July 2000Thunderstorm WindBear Lake-An isolated thunderstorm moved across northern Manistee County downing a few trees and power lines.
September 1998HailBear Lake-Hail up to 2.00 inches in diameter severely damaged 2 apple orchards. Around 15,000 bushels of apples were destroyed with an estimated monetary loss of $35,000.
April 2020HailBear Lake-no account filed
April 2020HailBear Lake-no account filed
July 2003HailBear Lake-no account filed
October 1999HailBear Lake-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Manistee County

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 PlaceDistance Sheets
Pleasanton3.9 miles10
Maue Corners4.2 miles9
Pierport4.9 miles9
Malcolm5.0 miles9
Onekama5.0 miles9
Norwalk5.5 miles9
Chief Lake5.5 miles9
Humphrey5.8 miles10

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 LakeAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2180603The 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 620870. 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.

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.