Bear River is a small clear slow-moving river in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed November 21, 2011 it is the largest tributary of

Little Traverse Bay Little Traverse Bay is a small bay, 170 feet (55 m) deep, off Lake Michigan in the northern area of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The cities of Harbor Springs and Petoskey are located on this bay. Harbor Springs originated as ''L'arbre de C ...

in the northwest of the

lower peninsula The Lower Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Lower Michigan – is the larger, southern and less elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; the other being the Upper Peninsula, which is separated by the S ...

. Traverse Bay is on

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

. The river is formed as the outflow of

Walloon Lake Walloon Lake is a glacier-formed lake located in Charlevoix and Emmet counties, just southwestward from the northern tip of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. It is now home to many vacation homes and cottages. Though the end of the west arm of t ...

on the boundary between Charlevoix County and Emmet County, draining from the southeast end of the lake at near the community of

in Melrose Township. M-75 has its northern terminus in a junction with US 131 nearby. The river flows east for about before turning north through Bear Creek Township, angling northwest to empty into

in Petoskey at . Petoskey was at first known as "Bear River" until being renamed in 1873. The Bear River itself has also been known as "Bear Creek" and "Ellis Creek". The river has excellent fishing and provides opportunities for peaceful canoeing or kayaking. The river is great for

smelt Smelt may refer to: * Smelting, chemical process * The common name of various fish: ** Smelt (fish), a family of small fish, Osmeridae ** Australian smelt in the family Retropinnidae and species ''Retropinna semoni'' ** Big-scale sand smelt ''At ...

fishing. For most of its path in Emmet County, River Road and the Tuscola and Saginaw Bay Railway parallel the river on its west banks.

Tributaries

* (left) Spring Brook ** (right) South Branch Spring Brook *** (right) Gimlet Creek ** (left) North Branch Spring Brook * (right) Hay Marsh Creek * Walloon Lake ** Schoofs Creek

Drainage basin

Including Walloon Lake, the Bear River system drains all or portions of the following cities and townships: * Charlevoix County ** Bay Township ** Boyne Valley Township ** Chandler Township ** Evangeline Township ** Hudson Township ** Melrose Township * Emmet County ** Bear Creek Township ** Petoskey ** Resort Township ** Springvale Township

References

External links

Bear River on Fishweb
{{authority control Rivers of Charlevoix County, Michigan Rivers of Emmet County, Michigan Rivers of Michigan Tributaries of Lake Michigan