Damage still visible on five-year anniversary of "Bear Paw Tornado"

GREEN BAY -- Five years ago June 7th, a tornado left a trail of destruction across parts of northeast Wisconsin. The "Bear Paw Tornado" had winds as high as 160 miles per hour when it ripped through parts of Shawano, Menominee and Ocono counties, and the damage is still visible five years later.

The tornado cut a path more than 40 miles long and near three-quarters of a mile wide at times.

14,000 acres of forest and farmland were flattened.

The Bear Paw Resort in White Lake had the misfortune of being directly in the path of the twister. It was demolished.

The twister ended up with a rating of EF-3 on the enhanced Fujita scale.

All-told, the tornado did more than $15 million worth of damage to property and timber.

"Thankfully, there were only a handful of injuries, and no deaths -- remarkable considering the tornado's damage path was so large that you could see the swath of destruction on satellite images," FOX11 Meteorologist in Green Bay Phil Decastro said.

The first image to come out was a high-resolution close-up, but the path was even visible in lower-resolution images in the days following the tornado.

Even to this day, you can still see the path of flattened forest on satellite -- though it is  becoming a little less well-defined.

Even as the physical scars begin to fade from the landscape, the memories of this remarkable tornado will last well into the future.

The Bear Paw Resort reopened one year after the tornado. Owners built a new bar, restaurant and some new cabins.