Smokey Bear the icon was born in the mind of Rudy Wendelin, who was an artist for the U.S. Forest Service. In 1944 the Forest Service authorized his poster of Smokey Bear as the symbol for fire prevention.
The real life Smokey Bear was discovered in 1950 in the Capitan mountains in New Mexico. Firefighters were battling a powerful human caused wildfire when they came upon a bear cub which had climbed a tree to escape the flames. When firefighters finally were able to rescue the bear cub, he had been badly burned. The firefighters nursed him back to health, named him Smokey Bear, and the living symbol of Smokey Bear was born.
Smokey Bear was eventually flown to the National Zoo in Washington D.C. where his legend and popularity grew around the world. Smokey Bear became an international superstar and the popularity of the Forest Service