Bear Creek is a village in Outagamie County, Wisconsin, United States.

The community began as a lumber camp in 1850 when Captain Welcome Hyde, a lumberman, located on the bank of the Embarrass River and cut the first road into the area.

The Milwaukee, Lake Shore, and Western Railroad (later Chicago and North Western Railway) was constructed through the area on its way to Clintonville, and began passenger and freight service through Bear Creek in 1878.

In 1885, land was platted for Hyde alongside the railroad right-of-way, and named Bear Creek after the nearby stream.

[8] The day after this fire, an election was held on the question of incorporation, which passed, 65–15, and thus the Village of Welcome was established.

In early 1903, Lucille Colbert was charged with setting fire to her own millinery and causing $80,000 in damage to the village.

Colbert was convicted in on December 5, 1903, the day after "the largest crowd ever gathered in the Appleton courtroom" (300) heard closing arguments.

It was ultimately overturned in 1905 by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, headed by John B. Winslow, and a new trial was ordered.

[11] In 1907, a new trial having been on the court's calendar for each year thereafter, the case was officially dropped, with Colbert never having served a day behind bars.

[14] According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 0.92 square miles (2.38 km2), all of it land.

Now named GLK Foods (having become Great Lakes Kraut Company in 1997 after several mergers), the business still operates a manufacturing facility in Bear Creek.