Smokey Bear's 70th!

[Ron Scott]

Congratulations! to Smokey on his 70th Birthday today.

[Texas Ranger]

DanG near as old as you and I!   smiley_old_guy  smiley_old_guy

[Ron Scott]

Yes, one of my previous bosses rescued Smokey as a cub bear from the forest fire on the Carson National Forest.

[Texas Ranger]

Ron, one of my distant cousins was on that crew.

[WmFritz]

Ron, I was curious to where Carson National Forest was and while doing my Google search, I came across an autobiography written by a man named Elliot Speer Barker. I ended up reading his story late into the night.

His family was originally from somewhere in Dixie and moved by train to West Texas to make a living. His mother was asmathic and heard New Mexico would cure her condition, so the family with 7 children and one on the way way traveled west by wagons.  They homesteaded a ranch and when Barker was old enough, he was hired by the Forestry Service. He spoke of how the predator population and how they would decimate the livestock and deer, but at the same time, rabbits and other small game populations exploded.

In 1931, he was appointed New Mexico's head Game Warden. I think I read he served 6 terms. I didn't read how old he was when he wrote his story, but he lived 95 years.

He spoke of the fire that Smokey was rescued. The time frame didn't add up though. Mr. Barker said the date of the fire was 1950, which would make Smokey 64 this year. Maybe from memory, Barker got it wrong or was a miss-print?

Here's an excerpt from his book on the fire... the fire crew was very lucky to survive it.

http://books.google.com/books?id=3sg_jD1SZ_YC&pg=PA38&lpg=PA12&focus=viewport&dq=carson+national+forest+fire+smokey+bear&output=html_text

[samandothers]

Ron Scott and WMFritz, thank you for the  post and information contained within.  Very interesting!

[thecfarm]

That was even on the nightly news last night.