Smokey The Bear

Smokey Bear is not only the icon of the longest running public service campaign, but he was an actual American black bear who in the spring of 1950 was caught in a wildfire that burned 17,000 acres in the Capitan Mountains of New Mexico. The cub was in the Lincoln National Forest. Smokey had climbed a tree to escape the blaze, but his paws and hind legs had been burned. He was rescued by a Game Warden after the fire.

He was given to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., where he lived for 26 years. Upon his death in November 1975, Smokey's remains were returned to New Mexico, and buried at what is now the Smokey Bear Historical Park.