Smokey Bear was authorized by the US Forest Service on August 9, 1944. His creation was part of the effort to protect forests during WWII when so many of the nation’s firefighters were serving in the armed forces. It took two months before artist Albert Staehle delivered the first poster for the campaign. On it, Smokey wears jeans and a campaign hat while he pours a bucket of water on a campfire. The message reads, "Smokey says – Care will prevent 9 out of 10 forest fires!"
The slogan "Remember ... only YOU can prevent forest fires." Was created by the Wartime Advertising Council (later called the Ad Council) in 1947. The words “forest fires" were replaced with "wildfires" in 2001 in response to a massive outbreak of wildfires in natural areas other than forests and to clarify that the campaign was advocating the prevention of unplanned fires, not controlled burns or prescribed fires for conservation purposes.
In May 1950, firefighters quelling the Capitan Cap Fire in New Mexico’s Lincoln National found a five-pound, three-month old American black bear cub high up in a tree. Because his paws and hind legs had been burned, the little bear was named Hotfoot Teddy. He was sent to Santa Fe, to live in the home of New Mexico Department of Game and Fish Ranger Ray Bell and his family while a local veterinarian helped him recover. After that, he lived with the assistant director of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish while the state game warden negotiated the cub to the Forest Service if he could be used in their conservation and wildfire prevention publicity programs. Somewhere along the line, the cub was renamed Smokey. At the end of June, 1950 the recovered, four-month old cub was flown to Washington, D.C., where a special exhibit was created for him in the National Zoo.
Smokey Bear lived at the National Zoo for 26 years. During that time he received millions of visitors. So many letters were addressed to him that he got his own ZIP code (20252) in 1964. Because Smokey and his mate, Goldie Bear, never had cubs, the zoo added "Little Smokey" to their cage in 1971. Interestingly, Little Smokey was also an orphaned bear cub from the Lincoln Forest.
Smokey Bear officially "retired" from his role as living icon on May 2, 1975, and Little Smokey was renamed Smokey Bear II. A year later, Smokey died. His body was returned to Capitan, New Mexico, where he is buried in the State Historical Park.
Author Jennifer Bohnhoff is a New Mexico native who remembers visiting Smokey Bear at the National Zoo when she was a child. Her book Summer of the Bombers tells a fictionalized story of the Cerro Grande fire that ravaged Los Alamos, New Mexico in 2000. An avid hiker, she asks you to help keep Smokey's memory by preventing fires while out in nature.
