Bear Creek, Texas
19 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1896 and the latest in 1986. It stands in the Dripping Springs-Wimberley census division. It lies in ZIP code area 78737. It lies near Signal Hill. The Survey maps it on the Signal Hill quadrangle. 397 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 991 feet above sea level.
Population over time
3 figuresBear Creek grew from 360 to 397 between 2000 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 360 | |
| 2010 | 382 | +22 (+6%) |
| 2020 | 397 | +15 (+4%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 19 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.
- 1896 USGS Austin quadrangle1:125000
- 1897 USGS Austin quadrangle1:125000
- 1910 USGS Austin quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1954 USGS Austin quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Buda quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1968 USGS Signal Hill quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1985 USGS Austin quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
- 1986 USGS Signal Hill quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
112 since 2005Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 112 fires within 5 miles of Bear Creek between 2005 and 2020, burning about 1,498 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 3 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 47 |
| Debris and open burning | 41 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 11 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 3 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
| Smoking | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 September 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | 10407 SPRING VALLEY |
| 29 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | 104241 |
| 2 September 2006 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
| 5 August 2012 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | 8700 THUNDERBIRD |
| 26 August 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | 91183 |
| 14 August 2011 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | 9718 LEDGESTONE |
| 14 August 2011 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | 9902 OLIVER |
| 14 August 2011 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | TOWANA & MOWINKLE |
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 Creek: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Flint. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed | Flint | Past Producer | Flint |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belterra | 2.0 miles | 19 | |
| Fitzhugh | 5.8 miles | 15 | |
| Hays | 6.0 miles | 18 | |
| Driftwood | 6.5 miles | 15 | |
| Dripping Springs | 7.5 miles | 15 | |
| Flatrock Ford | 8.7 miles | 18 | |
| Buda | 9.1 miles | 18 | |
| Hays City | 10.0 miles | 18 |
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 Creek | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3242143 | 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 1802731. 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.







