Original Smokey Bear Dies

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Summary

The orginal Smokey Bear, who was brought from New Mexico in June of 1950 to serve as the first living symbol of the Smokey bear forest fire prevention program, dies in his retirement cage at the National Zoological Park. He had been retired from his post and replaced with a similar bear in May 1975. He was buried at the Smokey Bear Historical Park (Capitan, New Mexico) not far from where he was found in 1950 as a cub, badly burned from a forest fire that destroyed a portion of the Lincoln National Forest.

Subject

  • National Zoological Park (U.S.)
  • United States Dept. of Agriculture Forest Service

Category

Chronology of Smithsonian History

Notes

Torch, 12/1976, p. 2

Contact information

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu

Date

November, 1976

Topic

  • Forest fire prevention
  • Deaths
  • Smokey Bear
  • Advertising
  • Bears
  • Advertising--Forest fire prevention

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