Image ID:  FHS3252
Image Date:   1950
Image Title:   [The "real" Smokey Bear at a promotional event, 1950.]
Image Caption:   [Unidentified man, probably New Mexico Game Warden Ray Bell, tending to the "real" Smokey Bear at a promotional event. The cub, secured by a chain and collar, is pawing at a Smokey Bear poster on the wall which reads "Please folks, be EXTRA careful this year! Remember - Only you can prevent woods fires!"]

[This image is one of many promotional photos taken of Smokey in 1950 (see also FHS image ID# FHS3253-3254 and FHS3256-3263). Bell served as caretaker for this bear cub after he was injured in the 1950 Capitan Gap fire in New Mexico's Lincoln National Forest. The cub was named "Smokey Bear" after the character created in 1944 by the Forest Service and the Advertising Council, and donated by the Forest Service to the National Zoo in Washington, DC where he remained until his death in 1976.]
Photographer:   [unknown]
Use Restrictions:   Permission from the Forest History Society required for any use of this image.
Repository Contact Information:   Forest History Society, Inc.; 701 William Vickers Ave., Durham, NC 27701; Tel.: (919) 682-9319; Fax: (919) 682-2349.