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Bear Creek, Wisconsin

7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Bear Creek Village. It lies in ZIP code area 54922. The Survey maps it on the Bear Creek quadrangle. 427 people lived here at the 2020 count.

Bear Creek within Outagamie County

Population over time

2 figures

Bear Creek fell from 448 to 427 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
2010448
2020427-21 (-5%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 surveys from 7 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

36 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 36 fires within 5 miles of Bear Creek between 1994 and 2020, burning about 51 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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
Debris and open burning23
Recreation and ceremony3
Missing data/not specified/undetermined3
Equipment and vehicle use2
Misuse of fire by a minor2
Smoking1
Arson/incendiarism1
Other causes1

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
2 June 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural ResourcesGARDEN PATCH
8 May 2013Debris and open burningunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural ResourcesPLEASANT VIEW
27 May 1994Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
18 May 2007Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
18 May 2007Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
17 May 2014Debris and open burning30 acresWisconsin Department of Natural ResourcesDEER CREEK FIRE
13 May 2012Equipment and vehicle use1.2 acresWisconsin Department of Natural ResourcesFENCER
1 May 1997Debris and open burningunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Outagamie County

Mines and quarries near this place

6 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of Bear Creek: 6 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
A Matz Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
B Duch Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Breiting Road Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
C Flanagan Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Finger Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Sugar Bush Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Outagamie County

Storms near this place

4 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bear Creek in 4 storm reports between 2003 and 2025: 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail, 1 tornado. 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 2025Thunderstorm WindBear Creek-Thunderstorm winds downed trees and powerlines in Bear Creek. The time of this report is an estimate based on radar data.
August 2019Thunderstorm WindBear Creek-Thunderstorm winds downed a couple of trees around Bear Creek.
June 2017Tornado (EF0)Bear Creek-A weak tornado uprooted several trees in saturated soil and broke limbs off about a dozen more (DI 27 and 28, DOD 1 and 2). A metal barn roof was blown off (DI 1, DOD 2) and another barn roof collapsed (DI 1, DOD 5).
April 2003HailBear Creek-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Outagamie 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
Sugar Bush3.5 miles7
Leeman9.5 miles8
Shiocton9.8 miles8
Stephensville13.3 miles8
Nichols14.1 miles9
Hortonville14.4 miles7
Black Creek15.1 miles8
Binghamton15.2 miles8

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 CreekAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q614245The 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 1561346. 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.