Smokey Bear is my favorite and I am lucky to live where he was found!
The old timers still remember finding him and his trip to fame.
The town is called Capitan as well as the mountains where the small cub was found. The tiny cub was found clinging to a tree and the firefighters rescued him. Due to the bandages on his feet where he was burned, he was named "Hot-foot Teddy." He was renamed Smokey Bear and became the symbol of the Forest Service and fire prevention.
They had started an ad campaign in 1944 and Smokey became the living symbol of that. He lived in the national zoo in D.C. to the ripe old age of 26.
It sure is hard to say Smokey Bear without the "the" in the middle. I still say it that way even if it isn't politically correct!
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