American symbol and "spokesbear" of the National Forest Service. Usually depicted as a big, burly brown bear standing upright on two legs, wearing a pair of blue jeans and a ranger's hat. He usually carries a shovel, and he sternly warns campers that "Only you can prevent forest fires."
There was a real Smokey Bear once. In 1950, there was a big, very destructive forest fire in the Lincoln National Forest in New Mexico -- 17,000 acres of forest were burned. In the aftermath of the blaze, Harlow Yaeger, a Forest Service ranger, discovered a young, five-pound bear cub clinging to a burned-out tree trunk. His fur and foot pads were singed, and he was very hungry -- Yaeger took the cub off the tree, calmed him down, and gave him to a member of his crew to be taken back to camp for first aid.
Soon after the cub was taken to the camp, New Mexico game wardens came up with the idea of naming the bear "Smokey," after the imaginary bear created by the Forest Service a few years before. Soon, New Mexico and national game officials got together to introduce the cub to the rest of the country as "Smokey Bear," national spokesman for forest fire prevention.
It was decided that Smokey would live at the National Zoological Park in Washington, DC, but two commercial airlines refused to transport the bear to Washington unless he were placed in the baggage compartment. Luckily, a private pilot from Hobbs, New Mexico volunteered to fly Smokey to the nation's capital. Pictures of Smokey were painted on both sides of the plane's fuselage, and the plane, with Smokey, the pilot, and a couple of rangers, took off.
By this time, news of the miracle bear was starting to circulate around the country. Wherever the plane landed to refuel, crowds of curious onlookers were on hand to greet Smokey. By the time the plane touched down in Washington and Smokey moved into his new quarters at the national zoo, the former orphan had been enthusiastically adopted by the nation.
Smokey spent 26 years in Washington, eventually growing up into a fairly grumpy bruin, before dying in November of 1976. Smokey's death made headline news nationwide. His body was transported back to New Mexico and buried at Capitan, near the forest where he was originally found. Since the original's death, another bear has been designated as "Smokey Bear" for another generation.