Bear Lake

Bear Lake is a 1,348-acre drainage lake, straddling the Barron-Washburn County line, in the Town of Bear Lake and the Town of Sarona, near Haugen, WI. Bear Creek and Boyer Creek flow into the lake from the north and the lake drains to the southeast through Bear Creek in the Village of Haugen to Rice Lake about 7 miles to the south. It is part of the larger Red Cedar River Watershed.

The average lake depth is approximately 20 feet, with a maximum depth of 87 feet. The shoreland surrounding Bear Lake is dominated by forest and wetlands, including the Bear Lake Sedge Meadow State Natural Area. Northern wild rice occurs naturally in the lake, and is protected by a no-wake requirement in areas where it is present. Additionally, Bear Lake is home to a great diversity of wildlife, including Bald Eagles, Loons, Herons, Cranes,  Osprey, Trumpeter Swan, Hummingbirds, Bitterns, Pileated Woodpeckers, Beaver, Porcupines, many varieties of Turtles and Frogs, and, of course, Black Bear.

According to oral histories, French voyageurs arrived in the Bear Lake area as early as the late 1600s, and began trading with the local Ojibwe and Dakota people. In the late 1800s the logging boom came to the area, with a dam at Haugen being strategically built and later blown-up each year to facilitate floating logs downstream to the mill in Rice Lake. After the logging ran its course (circa 1910), sheep farms and resorts became popular in the area. If you're interested in learning more about the history of the Bear Lake area, the 2007 Management Plan PDF has some fascinating stories and photographs on pages 4 to 11.