Bear, Arkansas
human settlement in Arkansas, United States of America
Bear, formerly also called Bear City, is an unincorporated community in Garland County, Arkansas, United States. It is close to the shore of Lake Ouachita, which was formed by the construction of the Blakely Mountain Dam across the Ouachita River. Today, Bear has very few inhabitants and is surrounded by the Ouachita National Forest.
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 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.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Bear, Arkansas” as human settlement in Arkansas, United States of America. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q14680790. Authority coordinates are 34.534, -93.274. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1910, 1882, 1884 and 1887.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bear, Arkansas” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.