Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Bear Creek

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Bear Creek

Bear Creek’s post office opened in 1886, and 61% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1982 on and the census since 1910.

1886first post office
0on the National Register
61%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Bear Creek began

When was Bear Creek founded?

1886

The Bear Creek post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Welcome (1898), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 341 in 19102020 census: 427140 years
Founding year: the first Bear Creek post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about 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 Bear Creek are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Bear Creek’s homes were built before 1938.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Bear Creek’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how 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.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Bear Creek came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Bear Creek.

Read it all →

The community began as a lumber camp in 1850 when Captain Welcome Hyde, a lumberman, located on the bank of the Embarrass River and cut the first road into the area. The Milwaukee, Lake Shore, and Western Railroad (later Chicago and North Western Railway) was constructed through the area on its way to Clintonville, and began passenger and freight service through Bear Creek in 1878. Hyde built a store in what became Bear Creek Station. In 1885, land was platted for Hyde alongside the railroad right-of-way, and named Bear Creek after the nearby stream. In June 1898, the community and its post office were renamed Welcome, after Capt. Hyde.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Bear Creek, 1886 to 1982

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1886Post officeThe Bear Creek post office opens
  3. 1898Post officeThe Welcome post office opens
  4. 20th century
  5. 1915Post officeThe Welcome post office closes
  6. 1960Born hereWilliam Lorge is born here
  7. 1982On 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.
Add from your album
On the map

Bear Creek on the map in 1982

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bear Creek.

Bear Creek on the 1982 USGS map1982Bear Creek 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 Bear Creek.

People over time

Bear Creek, census by census

0100200300400500192019401960198020002020Peak: 520

Between 337 and 520 people in every census since 1910.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bear Creek’s Wikipedia page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Bear Creek’s post office has been open since 1886. Another post office, Welcome, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Bear Creek
1886–today
Welcome
1898–1915
18801950today

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.

Deer CreekIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Bear Creek’s history

What year was Bear Creek founded?

The Bear Creek post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

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, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.