It was a sign.

Ruth Feild and her family were vacationing in Salt Lake City a decade ago and came across an antiques store with an 8-foot-tall Smokey Bear sign bearing the familiar line: “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires.”

Feild bought it. Her husband, whom she said “humors” her infatuation with Smokey paraphernalia, bent the sign to fit it inside the family’s Dodge Caravan.

Ruth Feild of Grand Junction collects Smokey Bear memorabilia, ranging from a huge sign complete with bullet holes to tiny ceramic salt and pepper shakers. Photo by Gretel Daugherty.

Sure, none of Feild’s four children, all younger than 12 at the time, were able to sit up straight during the entire drive back to Grand Junction, but they were allowed to play Tic-tac-toe on the cardboard box wrapped around the outside of the sign to protect it.

“I know my kids will remember that always, how we got that sign home,” Feild said.

Feild doesn’t remember why or how she started collecting Smokey Bear items. She thinks it started 20 years ago with a stuffed bear — she now has 40 — and blossomed into cookie jars, salt and pepper shakers, ashtrays, a candy tin, etc.

“I like that bobblehead, though, too,” Feild said, pointing to another piece in her collection. “He was a real iconic symbol of America growing up in the ’50s.”

In that case, Feild, who declined to give her age, saying she was “younger than Smokey,” is in for a treat this month.

The U.S. Forest Service will celebrate Smokey Bear’s 65th birthday with a party from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Aug. 9 at the Grand Mesa Visitor Center off Colorado Highway 65.

Cake and punch will be served.

Typically, Smokey’s birthday party at the visitor center draws about 1,000 people, said John Smith of visitor information services with the Forest Service’s office in Grand Junction.

This year, it might draw 1,001.

“I think I am going to make it,” Feild said.

Should Feild attend the party Aug. 9, she may be one of the few guests who knows the true story of Smokey Bear.

“I never met a kid who has known the true story of Smokey,” said Brenda Winfrey, who works with Smith in the Grand Junction Forest Service office. “I doubt many adults know it either.”

Smokey’s story begins in 1944 when a cartoon bear was created to be the mascot for a national fire prevention advertising campaign. The bear was named Smokey. The Forest Service used the 1944 date to determine that Smokey Bear will turn 65 this month.

The Smokey Bear Wildfire Prevention Campaign is the longest-running public service advertising campaign in U.S. history, according to Winfrey and Smith.

However, the Smokey Bear most Americans grew up with was a live cub found by firefighters in 1950 in the Lincoln National Forest near Capitan, N.M., said David Cunningham, park manager of Smokey Bear Historical Park in southern New Mexico.

After a human-caused wildfire destroyed Smokey’s home, the orphaned and injured cub was flown to a zoo in Washington, where he lived for more than two decades. A second orphaned black bear from the same forest where Smokey was found was flown to Washington to take Smokey’s place after his death in 1976 at the age of 26.

After his death, Smokey was flown, packed in dry ice, from Washington to Albuquerque, N.M.

Smokey received a police escort from Albuquerque to Capitan, a 172-mile trip, before he was buried at 3 a.m. beneath a large boulder because there was a rumor someone wanted to kidnap him, Cunningham said.

About 20,000 people visit Smokey Bear’s grave annually at Capitan, Cunningham said.

“I’ve been at this park for 12 years,” he added. “It never ceases to amaze me where people come from to see Smokey’s grave.”

However, Cunningham is not amazed that Smokey Bear’s popularity peaked in the 1950s to 1970s when TV commercials featuring his face were commonplace and his likeness was frequently placed in U.S. forests.

Smokey’s face isn’t as popular anymore.

The increase in TV stations has created more pressure for advertising revenue and decreased the desire to air public service announcements such as Smokey’s, Cunningham said.

In addition, Smokey received negative publicity in the 1980s after the public perceived his message of forest fire prevention as unfair given the fact some fires are necessary for the health of forests.

“Smokey’s message has always been to prevent unwanted, human-caused fires,” Cunningham said.

At the peak of his popularity, Smokey was given the 20252 ZIP code to handle his fan mail. He still has the personal ZIP code.

Songwriters Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins penned a song in 1952 called “Smokey the Bear.”

But Smokey Bear is the proper name of the bear as determined the Smokey Bear Act signed into law in 1952 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Although, Feild hasn’t ever written Smokey Bear or visited his gravesite in Capitan, N.M., the Grand Junction woman is confident that the little bear had a positive effect on her childhood and left an impression as an adult.

But that doesn’t mean even she thinks Smokey is perfect.

“I would give him a new pair of jeans,” said Feild, a sewer and quilter. “I would take away the cuffs and give him a relaxed-fit cut. I don’t think I’d do a pair of low-rise jeans on him.”

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SMOKEY
The U.S. Forest Service will celebrate Smokey Bear’s 65th birthday with a party from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Aug. 9 at the Grand Mesa Visitor Center off Colorado Highway 65.

Email MELINDA MAWDSLEY