Southern Region

History of Smokey Bear

Smokey Bear is the national symbol for Wildfire Prevention. The vision for a national fire prevention program was conceived in the Spring of 1942 during World War II. Several shells were shot from an enemy submarine into an oil refinery near the Los Padres National Forest.  With the importance of wood to the war effort, the threat to protecting the forests from unintentional wildfire as well as deliberate wildfire became real. The Wartime Advertising Council and the Forest Service joined forces to form the Cooperative Forest Fire Prevention (CFFP) Program. 

While looking for an appropriate symbol, the program borrowed Bambi from Walt Disney. The bear image, known as Smokey, was launched on August 9, 1944. Smokey was named after “Smokey” Joe Martin the assistant Chief of the New York City Fire Department. Albert Staehle was asked to paint the first picture of Smokey Bear.  Later artists included Rudy Wendelin and Harry Rossoll. Jackson Weaver became the voice of Smokey Bear, followed by Gene Moss. Later during 1950, when a real bear cub was found singed by a forest fire in the Capitan Mountains of New Mexico and nursed back to health by a rancher, forest rangers, game wardens, Veterinarian Edwin Smith and Judy Bell, state game warden Ray Bell’s daughter, Smokey made his debut at the Washington DC Zoo. He lived in the Zoo until his death in 1976. With his popularity Smokey was issued his own private zip code and books such as Smokey Bear 20252: A Biography by William C. Lawter, Jr. and The Guardian of the Forest: A History of the Smokey Bear Program by Ellen Earnhardt Morrison have been written about Smokey's life and related popular culture.

Learn more about Smokey's history

August 9, 2004 marks the 60th Birthday of Smokey Bear. For 60 years Smokey’s simple message of “Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires” has achieved world recognition. The slogan was modified in 2002 to be “Only YOU Can Prevent Wildfires” recognizing that grass and brush fires are equally threatening. Smokey is recognized as the most successful, longest running public service campaign in the nation. Despite efforts of some to change his message or twist his words, Smokey has remained a consistent, staunch advocate for prevention of carelessly caused wildfires.

Partnership with the Advertising Council

Ruth A. Wooden, Past-President of the Advertising Council, noted at the time of Smokey's 50th birthday in 1994, that Smokey Bear has a degree of public recognition equal to that of Santa Claus and Mickey Mouse. Foot, Cone and Belding (FCB), the volunteer advertising agency responsible for developing the creative work for the campaign, is now in its third generation of producers. Many young men and women began their successful careers working with the Smokey campaign. Today there is great pride at FCB for their work with Smokey. The campaign is the longest running, most successful public service campaign in the nation.