Bear Lake

History

In 1836, individuals from various tribes of native people signed the Treaty of Washington, which ceded the northwest portion of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan to the United States. At the time, native people lived in the Bear Lake area, evidence remaining in various burial mounds of the region, including one at Pierport. The next year, in 1837, Michigan became a state. In 1841, John Stronach and party came to the Manistee area and started a lumber mill. During the following twenty years, the city of Manistee grew as virgin forests were cut, and the logs put into the Manistee rivers to float to the mills on Manistee Lake. On May 20, 1862, President Lincoln signed into law the Homestead Act, which offered of undeveloped federal land to anyone who filed an application, create a farm, and apply for a deed. Almost immediately, people began exploring the area between Manistee and Traverse City, looking for prime farmland. In 1863, Russell Smith, D.E. Sibley, Elisha Richmond, George W. Hopkins, Simeon Anderson, and others came to Bear Lake on such scouting expeditions. At the time, the region was entirely heavily forested with white pine and hardwoods, and with only a single walking trail. Smith and Sibley both moved their families to the area that year, and began their homesteads. Sibley's homestead was on the north side of Bear Lake; Smith's was on the south side, and included the present village. By 1864, Simeon Anderson and about 25 other families had started homesteads in the Bear Lake area. In that year Elisha Richmond made his first failed attempt to move his large family to the area from Illinois. In 1865, the township of Bear Lake, also including the area of Pleasanton, was created, formerly being part of Brown Township. A township council was formed. By…

Geography

The village is in northwestern Manistee County on the south shore of a lake with the same name. U.S. Route 31 passes through the west and north sides of the village, leading southwest to Manistee, the county seat, and north to Benzonia. According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , all of it land. The village is part of the Manistee River watershed.

Largest nearby schools

• Crawford School
  Elementary · KALKASKA · 45 students · 22.5:1 ratio