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Bear

Ghost town · Roane County, Tennessee

Bethel Valley quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1935, 1:24,000)
Bethel Valley quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1935, 1:24,000) · U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain

Bear is a ghost town in Roane County, Tennessee. It is one of 11 former communities in Roane County on the federal names register. That ranks the county 22nd among the 86 Tennessee counties with a vanished settlement on record.

The U.S. Geological Survey lists Bear as a historical populated place on the Bethel Valley topographic quadrangle: the name is no longer in official use for a community, whether the settlement was abandoned, absorbed into a neighbouring town or renamed. The recorded location is 35.9492° N, 84.3144° W.

Key facts

USGS quadrangleBethel Valley
Elevation880 ft
Nearest living townOak Ridge, TN
Distance to it1.8 miles
GNIS feature ID1310397
Coordinates35.94924, -84.31437

Open the location on a map

What's there now

Bear is no longer a community in its own right. The nearest living town is Oak Ridge, TN (population 32,088), about 1.8 miles away in a straight line, and the site sits at roughly 880 feet above sea level. Much of the land around former townsites is private; check access before you visit.

Nearby places

Questions

Where is Bear?

Bear is in Roane County, Tennessee, at 35.9492, -84.3144.

How many ghost towns are in Roane County?

Roane County, Tennessee has 11 ghost towns on record at Wayfarrow.

Sources and licences

Facts marked "approximately" carry an uncertain date in the source. Text on this page is generated from the sources above; no encyclopedia prose is copied. Last updated 2026-11-05.