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.
Population over time
2 figuresBear 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 448 | |
| 2020 | 427 | -21 (-5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 surveys from 7 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.
- 1955 USGS Embarrass quadrangle1:48000, 2 printings
- 1955 USGS Green Bay quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1969 USGS Bear Creek quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Shawano quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
36 since 1994Regional 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 burning | 23 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 3 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Other causes | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 June 2015 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | GARDEN PATCH |
| 8 May 2013 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | PLEASANT VIEW |
| 27 May 1994 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 18 May 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 18 May 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 17 May 2014 | Debris and open burning | 30 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | DEER CREEK FIRE |
| 13 May 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.2 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | FENCER |
| 1 May 1997 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
6 within 5 milesRegional 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A Matz Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| B Duch Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Breiting Road Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| C Flanagan Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Finger Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Sugar Bush Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
4 since 2003Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bear Creek | - | Thunderstorm winds downed trees and powerlines in Bear Creek. The time of this report is an estimate based on radar data. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bear Creek | - | Thunderstorm winds downed a couple of trees around Bear Creek. |
| June 2017 | Tornado (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 2003 | Hail | Bear Creek | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sugar Bush | 3.5 miles | 7 | |
| Leeman | 9.5 miles | 8 | |
| Shiocton | 9.8 miles | 8 | |
| Stephensville | 13.3 miles | 8 | |
| Nichols | 14.1 miles | 9 | |
| Hortonville | 14.4 miles | 7 | |
| Black Creek | 15.1 miles | 8 | |
| Binghamton | 15.2 miles | 8 |
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 Q614245 | 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 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.



