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History · Upper Bear Creek

Half of Upper Bear Creek’s homes were built after 1987

Most of Upper Bear Creek was built recently: 1% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1987. Below: maps from 1957 on.

0on the National Register
1%homes built before 1940
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What stands out about Upper Bear Creek’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Upper Bear Creek are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Upper Bear Creek’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Upper Bear Creek’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Upper Bear Creek came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Upper Bear Creek.

Read it all →

The Upper Bear Creek area is rich in history - Troutdale in the Pines, a posh resort hotel, catered to Hollywood movie stars and America's elite in the 1920s and served as a vacation spot for Denverites escaping the summer heat. Other summer resorts sprang up in the area as well, including the Greystone Guest Ranch and the Brookforest Inn.

Additionally, the Mt. Evans Outdoor Lab School, a campus of the Jefferson County Public Schools, is located in the Upper Bear Creek area. Many Jeffco 6th graders will spend a week at Mt. Evans, or the other outdoor lab school, Windy Peak, where they stay in cabins or dorms and study various aspects of the outdoors, including forestry, astronomy, ecology, and pioneer history, among others.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Upper Bear Creek, 1876 to 1957

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1876Post officeThe Brookvale post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1942Post officeThe Brookvale post office closes
  5. 1957On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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On the map

Upper Bear Creek on the map, 1957 to 1974

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Upper Bear Creek. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Upper Bear Creek on the 1957 USGS mapUpper Bear Creek on the 1974 USGS map1957Squaw Pass sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Upper Bear Creek.

Famous people

Famous people close to Upper Bear Creek

Nobody well known was born in Upper Bear Creek itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Chris BroderickAmerican guitarist · b. 1970
Gregg HenryAmerican actor · b. 1952
Derek CianfranceAmerican film director and screenwriter · b. 1974
Arthur HoytAmerican film actor · b. 1874
H
Hayden ByerlyAmerican actor · b. 2000
J
Jake CanterAmerican snowboarder · b. 2003
Places that used to be

Lost post offices and old corners

Another post office, Brookvale, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Hamlets and corners on the map
Brookvale

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Upper Witter GulchIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Upper Bear Creek’s history

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.