Bear, formerly also called Bear City, is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Garland County, Arkansas Garland County is located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 100,180. The county seat is Hot Springs. Garland County comprises the Hot Springs, AR Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county includes Hot ...

, United States. It is close to the shore of

Lake Ouachita Lake Ouachita (''Pronounced WAH-shi-tah'') is a reservoir created by the damming of the Ouachita River by Blakely Mountain Dam (). Blakely Mountain Dam was built by the United States Army Corps of Engineers from 1948 to 1953 for hydroelectric p ...

, which was formed by the construction of the Blakely Mountain Dam across the

Ouachita River The Ouachita River ( ) is a river that runs south and east through the U.S. states of Arkansas and Louisiana, joining the Tensas River to form the Black River near Jonesville, Louisiana. It is the 25th-longest river in the United State ...

. Today, Bear has very few inhabitants and is surrounded by the

Ouachita National Forest The Ouachita National Forest is a vast congressionally-designated National Forest that lies in the western portion of Arkansas and portions of extreme-eastern Oklahoma, USA. History The Ouachita National Forest is the oldest National Forest in t ...

History

Up until some point in the early 20th century after 1910 Bear was in Montgomery County. However, it was decided to make the boundary more regular so Bear as well as Buckville and

Cedar Glades A calcareous glade is a type of ecological community that is found in the central Eastern United States. Calcareous glades occur where bedrock such as limestone occurs near or at the surface, and have very shallow and little soil development ...

were transferred to Garland County. Bear City began with the founding of a post office in 1882. The area only had a few homesteaders and was named for nearby Bear Mountain. In 1884, rumors of gold in the area began to circulate. The first plat for the city was also filed that year. By 1887, there were 35 mining companies in Bear City, as well as two newspapers, the ''Bear City Times'' and the ''Arkansas Mining Journal''. The city had between 1,200 and 5,000 people. Unfortunately for Bear City, the gold mining companies were built on false hopes and scams. When Geological Survey of Arkansas geologist

John Casper Branner John Casper Branner (July 4, 1850 – March 1, 1922)Memorial Res ...

exposed the gold scams, the citizens of Bear City burned him in effigy. However, this burst the bubble of false speculation and most people moved away. Bear remained a small community. A school was built there in 1906. Starting in 1930 there was a chair factory that employed 12 people. Sometime in the 1940s, the school was consolidated into the Lake Hamilton School District.

Sources

''Encyclopedia of Arkansas'' entry on Bear
*''The Farm Journal Complete World Atlas'', 1912 Edition, p. 14 *''Haymond's Complete World Atlas'', 1952 Edition, p. 160 Populated places established in 1882 Unincorporated communities in Garland County, Arkansas History of Arkansas Unincorporated communities in Arkansas {{GarlandCountyAR-geo-stub