Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1983 on and the census since 1880.
The Bear Lake post office opened in 1862, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1887. Another post office, Bearlake (1895), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Bear Lake’s history is told.
Peaked at 313 in 1890; 148 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bear Lake’s Wikipedia page.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Bear Lake yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Bear Lake is a borough in Warren County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, Bear Lake had a population of 148.
Its first post office opened in 1862. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 164 to 148 (-10%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Bear Lake, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Bear Lake. — This thriving village is the product of railroad enterprise. It was formerly called Freehold, but about fifteen years ago this name was changed to Bear Lake, after the beautiful body of water of that name about a mile east of the village. This lake has a surface about ten acres in area, is deep and very clear, and without a visible outlet. As late as i860 there was no road through Bear Lake worthy of the name. Previous to that date a large part of the land now covered by the village was owned by Daniel Walker to
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The first store in Bear Lake was kept in a small shanty, 16 by 20, by Abner Chapman, on the site of Bordwell's present store. He dealt in groceries, liquors, etc., about i860, while the railroad was in process of construction.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bear Lake.
1983Warren sheet · 1:100,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Bear Lake.
Bear Lake’s post office has been open since 1862. Another post office, Bearlake, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Bear Lake post office opened in 1862, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1887.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 Wikimedia Commons (1), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2015