Monday, October 13, 2014

Ren's Did you Know ? - The story behind Smokey Bear, one of New Mexico’s legendary figures

THE REAL LIFE SMOKEY BEAR: The orphaned bear cub Smokey Bear in 1950 with Judy Bell, the daughter of a New Mexico game warden whose family nursed Smokey back to health. U.S. Forest Service photo.

As New Mexico battles another tough fire season, I came across a blog post from the U.S. Department of Agriculture tracing the real-life history of one of the state’s icons: The little cub named Smokey Bear who barely survived a wildfire in the Lincoln National Forest in 1950.
While most of us know the little fellow’s story and the New Mexico connection, here’s a rundown separating the fact from the fiction:
*First, the name is Smokey Bear, not “Smokey The Bear.” In 1952, songwriters Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins wrote a public service announcement anthem that was seen coast to coast. In order to keep rhythm in the song, they added ‘the’ between ‘Smokey’ and ‘Bear’ but the name was — and still is — Smokey Bear.
*Smokey Bear was initially an advertising creation, not a real bear. It was created in August of 1944 when the U.S. Forest Service and the Ad Council agreed that a fictional bear named Smokey would be the symbol for their efforts to promote forest fire prevention.
*Six years later, a terrible fire swept through the Capitan Mountains. Firefighters saw a bear cub at one point but, thinking the little guy’s mother was nearby, they let him be. But the fire raged and the orphaned cub climbed a tree to avoid the flames. The 3-month-old survived but was badly burned. As the USDA blog says, “A rancher, who had been helping on the effort, agreed to take him home. A New Mexico Department of Game and Fish ranger heard about the injured cub from talk at the firecamp. He made arrangements for a small plane to fly the little guy to Santa Fe for critically needed veterinary care.”
*The cub was dubbed Smokey and word of his story spread across the country. After recovering, Smokey was sent to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., where he spent the rest of his days as a true-to-life reminder that “only YOU can prevent forest fires.” Millions came to visit him in the zoo and Smokey received so many letters that the U.S. Postal Service gave him his own zip code.
*When Smokey died in 1976, his body was flown back to New Mexico and is buried under a plaque in Capitan that reads “This is the resting place of the first living Smokey Bear . . . the living symbol of wildfire prevention and wildlife conservation.”

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