Image ID#: FHS3257

Image Date: 1950

Image Title: [The "real" Smokey Bear being treated for his burns, 1950.]

Image Caption: Caption 1: No. 4 -- Smokey, cub bear severly burned in a New Mexico forest fire, receives treatment from Dr. Edwin J. Smith of Santa Fe. Smokey is now a resident of the Washington Zoo and is dedicated to the school children of America as a symbol of forest fire prevention and wildlife conservation.

Caption 2: [Veterinarian Edwin Smith examines the "real" Smokey Bear on a table in his office. The cub's front right paw is bandaged.]

[This image is one of many promotional photos taken of Smokey in 1950 (see also FHS image ID# FHS3253-3254, FHS3256, and FHS3258-3263). This bear cub was cared for by New Mexico Game Warden Ray Bell after being 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.]

Subjects:
fire prevention/ Smokey Bear/ bears/ Smith, Edwin J./ USDA Forest Service--public relations/ forest fire prevention/ Lincoln National Forest (New Mexico)/ United States, Southwest/ 1950 Capitan Gap fire (New Mexico)/ United States, Southwest/ New Mexico/ Santa Fe, New Mexico/ 1950s/ 20th century

Photographer: [Walters, Harold D., for the U.S. Forest Service]

Copyright Holder: public domain
(Permission from the Forest History Society is required for any use of images not in the public domain. All responsibility for possible infringement of copyright or other rights is assumed by the user.)

Preferred Credit Line: U.S. Forest Service photo courtesy of the Forest History Society, Durham, N.C.

Image From:
U.S. Forest Service Headquarters History Collection
Forest History Society, Inc.
701 William Vickers Ave., Durham, NC 27701