REIGNITING A PASSION FOR SMOKEY

Few people can't identify this icon of forest management.

     Someone needs to rescue Smokey the Bear.  Again.

     Someone with political clout. With money. And a vision for fun, education and young people. Not just the kiddies. Pre-teens. Teens. Even 20somethings. 

     I’m visiting Capitan, NM, a middle-of-New Mexico place where Smokey was born in 1950, rescued and eventually buried. But there’s so much more to this 75-year-old story.  Unfortunately, it unfolds yawningly inside in a museum designed for baby boomers.  

     The small Smokey Bear Historical Park houses a ton of historic fire-prevention posters (some I recognize), pictures of Hollywood icons from back in the day (I LOVE seeing Timmy and Lassie!) and a video of the now aged game warden talking about how he tended to the baby bear’s badly burned feet and bottom, then got him rebranded as the living embodiment of Smokey. 

     One room, for kids I guess, has baskets of crayons and coloring pages.

     There’s not much here to do.

     The extraordinary legend of Smokey is fading. Even the town has given up. It cancelled its annual  Smokey Bear Appreciation event this year. Couldn’t get enough volunteers.

     But Smokey is ageless and tireless. He’s still featured in fire prevention pubic service announcements. His likeness is still at national parks and wild places warning  about the day’s forest-fire threat.

     Smokey needs his own phoenix. 

What can be done? Some thoughts:

1.     Introduce a virtual reality room. (Beg Disney to pitch in. The two have history.)
2.     Hire contemporary cinematographers to retool videos. (Maybe start a Go Fund Me page.)
3.     Turn the two-acre outdoor park into a learnland/playland, with a geocache at Smokey’s gravesite and a  phone-based scavenger hunt.
4.     And please.  Get rid of the crayons. Or update it to include adult coloring kiosks.

     I’ll share these thoughts with the Smokey Bear Hometown Association members.  They’re the ones who cancelled the annual appreciation event. They say they're focusing instead on next year’s 75th anniversary birthday bash for the much-loved environmental icon. 

     Would’t it be nice if the party partnered with a makeover reveal?

An early Smokey poster. He's dreaming of his own rescue.

 

Inside, the museum looks lovely. Lots to read.