Smokey Bear made his first appearance on a wildfire ... cub was sent to reside at the National Zoo in Washington as a real-life embodiment of Smokey. Lauded as a hero, kids and adults alike ...

Both the Smokey Bear character and the real life Smokey hail from Washington, D.C. In 1950, an orphaned bear cub was rescued from a wildfire in New Mexico and brought to Washington to live at the ...

David Pollack / Corbis via Getty Images But I actually learned recently that Smokey isn't a fictional character, and started out as a real bear with ... escaping with his life but badly burned ...

While Smokey Bear today is most commonly seen in picture form — or as a balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade — there was, at one point, a real-life bear that was known as "Smokey Bear." ...

Was there ever a real-life Smokey Bear? Smokey Bear was also a real-life bear who was the victim of a wildfire as a young cub, according to the Smithsonian Institution. In 1950, a wildfire broke ...

As Smokey Bear's popularity grew due to his positive animal traits, his story took a real-life turn in New Mexico with the discovery of an orphaned cub. In 1950, firefighters in Capitan ...

But the most popular Smokey incarnation was as a real bear. It was an American black bear cub that was rescued in 1950 from a 17,000-acre forest fire in Lincoln National Forest in south-central ...

DCNR’s Westley Stout spoke on the history of Smokey Bear, who was a real bear saved from a forest fire as a cub. Children attending the library’s birthday party received coloring books and ...

From his humble beginnings as a fictional character to his transformation into a real-life survivor and national icon, Smokey Bear has become one of the most recognizable figures in American history.

While Smokey Bear was the star of the CFFP campaign, it wasn’t until 1950 that there was a real-life Smokey Bear introduced to the public. In Capitan, New Mexico, in the aftermath of a forest ...