The American West: Smokey Bear, America’s Most Iconic Forest Ranger

The American West is in its summer fire season and smoke has been spreading across Wyoming from fires to the north and west, as well as some within the state.

If you’re under 50 years of age, there’s a good possibility that you may think of Smokey Bear as a fictional character who shows up at parades and community events where there is a Forest Service presence. You may not realize the relevance of his place in the history of forest fire fighting in the United States.

I thought it would be a good time to revisit the story of Smokey’s phenomenal life and how it influenced hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of children and adults to understand and respect the beauty of the natural world around us.

Our story began when Harlow Yeager, a U.S. Forest Service ranger, looked over the smoldering remains of what had once been a vibrant, green wilderness paradise.

As far as he could see in every direction were the blackened skeletons of tree trunks and wildlife that had failed to escape the hot breath of a massive fire.

Yeager was standing in the midst of New Mexico’s Lincoln National Forest, and the ghastly scene he surveyed was the result of a large conflagration that over the past several days had burned 17,000 acres of prime ponderosa pine forestland.

A Scared Little Cub

As Yeager took one last look at the wasteland before him, his eyes were attracted to something moving in the charred remains of a tree.

When he walked closer, he discovered a tiny black bear cub hugging a burned-out pine trunk. Yeager carefully removed the squalling 5-pound youngster and checked him for burns. The little fellow’s foot pads were singed from the intense heat of the burned tree, and he probably had not eaten for days, but otherwise he appeared to be in relatively good health.

After calming the scared cub with soothing talk and a good petting, the ranger gave him to a member of his crew and instructed him to carry the animal back to camp where first aid could be administered.

Fire Strikes

It was late spring 1950, and so far, little rain had visited the conifer forests that clung to the slopes of the Capitan Mountains in south-central New Mexico. What little moisture had fallen had been quickly absorbed by the loose pine tinder that blanketed the forest floor, making the area a disaster waiting to happen.

On May 4, the awful tragedy struck.

Perhaps the culprit was a bolt of lightning or maybe it was a camper who carelessly flipped his burning cigarette onto the dry forest floor. Regardless of the cause, flames roared through the surrounding area, and before firefighters could arrive, the fire was out of control.

The onsite local, state and federal personnel eventually received badly needed assistance from soldiers stationed at the air base 60 miles away in Roswell and from Fort Bliss, Texas.

A potentially deadly situation arose when several soldiers were surrounded by the fire’s intense flames. A large rock pile provided an island upon which the men hoped to escape the inferno.

As they hunkered down on the stone platform, they placed wet handkerchiefs over their faces, hoping and praying that the fire would circle the rocks. For almost an hour, the frightened men lay there until the flames finally passed.

Miraculously, none of them were harmed.

When the blazing inferno was finally extinguished, the firefighters slowly returned to camp.

There they found the little rescued bear cub was causing considerable excitement.

The New Smokey

As each man took turns trying to feed the bear, the frightened cub refused to eat.

Finally, Ross Flatley, who owned a nearby ranch, announced that he and his wife, Patricia, would care for the cub until other arrangements could be made. Ray Bell, a New Mexico game warden, visited the ranch the following day and retrieved the bear.

It was then that Bell conceived the idea of using the cub as the living emblem of a fire prevention program implemented by the U.S. Forest Service several years earlier. The campaign had utilized an imaginary bear named Smokey as its “spokesman.”

Bell was encouraged when everyone he talked to thought the idea was a good one. Bell flew the bear cub to a veterinarian in Santa Fe, who treated the burns on its paws. Six days later, Bell’s 5-year-old daughter, Judy, persuaded her father to bring the cub home so that she and her mother could nurse it back to health.

Bell’s boss was Elliott Barker, a legend among New Mexico outdoorsmen and conservationists.

Barker, the director of the New Mexico Game and Fish Department, liked the idea of using a live bear to increase public awareness of the tragedy of forest fires. When he telephoned authorities in Washington, D.C., and laid the plan before them, they liked it as well.

The orphan cub officially became “Smokey Bear.”

Excited Forest Service officials decided to fly Smokey to Washington and house him at the National Zoological Park where his job would be to act as “national spokesman” for the cause of forest fire prevention.

Smokey Takes Off

After two commercial airlines refused to fly Smokey unless he was placed in the luggage compartment, Frank Hines, the owner of a flying service in Hobbs, New Mexico, volunteered his time and an airplane to transport the cub.

A local artist was hired to paint a picture of Smokey on both sides of the plane’s fuselage, and on June 27, 1950, Smokey, accompanied by two local forest rangers, took off for the nation’s capital.

By now, news of Smokey’s remarkable rescue had spread across the country.

At nearly every airport where the plane stopped to refuel, crowds of curious onlookers gathered for a peek at the brave little bear, and by the time the plane finally touched down in Washington, Smokey was on his way to becoming a national hero.

For 26 years Smokey Bear served as the living symbol of America’s pride in its forests, wildlife, and natural beauty and its awareness and dedication to fire prevention. An entire generation of children grew up seeing Smokey’s friendly face and ever-present shovel and hearing and learning from his admonition that “only you can prevent forest fires.”

Smokey’s life and work were commemorated by highway signage, comic books, baseball caps, stuffed animals, wall posters, bookmarks and much more.

When the old fellow died in November 1976, he was probably the best-known animal in the United States. His body was transported back to New Mexico and buried at Capitan, near Lincoln National Forest.

The Capitan Ranger District, where the cub had been found, was renamed “Smokey Bear” in 1960, and later combined with another district to become the present-day Smokey Bear Ranger District.

Today, the state-operated Smokey Bear Historical Park at Capitan memorializes the life and legacy of this American icon.

James A. Crutchfield can be reached at TNcrutch@aol.com.