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.
Population over time
2 figuresBear 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 286 | |
| 2020 | 342 | +56 (+20%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 9 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.
- 1954 USGS Manitowoc quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Onekama quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Manitowoc quadrangle1:250000
- 1976 USGS Onekama NW quadrangle1:24000
- 1983 USGS Bear Lake quadrangle1:24000
- 1983 USGS Manistee quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
12 since 2004Regional 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/undetermined | 3 |
| Debris and open burning | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Huron-Manistee National Forest | MAIDENS ROAD |
| 5 August 2004 | Debris and open burning | 70 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 14 July 2019 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | BEAR LAKE FD 0019086 - 2019 |
| 14 July 2019 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | BEAR LAKE FD 0019087 - 2019 |
| 3 June 2010 | Natural | 10 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | MANISTEE 01 |
| 13 June 2020 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Huron-Manistee National Forest | ZIEHM |
| 24 May 2007 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Huron-Manistee National Forest | POPLAR ROAD |
| 18 May 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | BEAR LAKE FD 0018075 - 2018 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Klein's Clay Pit | Fire Clay (Refractory) | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
11 since 1998Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bear Lake | $2,000 | Trees were blown down along Bear Lake, and on Wallaker Road northeast of Bear Lake. |
| October 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bear Lake | $1,000 | Power lines downed. |
| April 2024 | Hail | Bear Lake | - | Three-quarter-inch sized hail reported. |
| April 2024 | Hail | Bear Lake | - | Report of three-quarter inch hail. |
| September 2022 | Hail | Bear Lake | - | Bear Lake area. Report relayed by local broadcast media. |
| July 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bear Lake | - | An isolated thunderstorm moved across northern Manistee County downing a few trees and power lines. |
| September 1998 | Hail | Bear 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 2020 | Hail | Bear Lake | - | no account filed |
| April 2020 | Hail | Bear Lake | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Bear Lake | - | no account filed |
| October 1999 | Hail | Bear 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pleasanton | 3.9 miles | 10 | |
| Maue Corners | 4.2 miles | 9 | |
| Pierport | 4.9 miles | 9 | |
| Malcolm | 5.0 miles | 9 | |
| Onekama | 5.0 miles | 9 | |
| Norwalk | 5.5 miles | 9 | |
| Chief Lake | 5.5 miles | 9 | |
| Humphrey | 5.8 miles | 10 |
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 Lake | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2180603 | 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 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.





