Reader finds Yuma tie to Smokey Bear

Ranger who found bear cub taught at local school

Last weekend, the Yuma Sun Editorial Board wrote a piece celebrating Smokey Bear’s 75th anniversary.

It turns out, there’s a Yuma connection to Smokey Bear, pointed out to us by reader Chris Ingram.

“As the nation is celebrating Smokey Bear’s 75th anniversary, the Sun should dig into its archives to find the story of a Yuma teacher who played an integral role in the proud bear’s history. As a young man Mr. McEntyre, my Gila Vista Jr. High science teacher in the 1970s, worked on a fire crew in New Mexico, and was there to pull a scorched bear cub from a tree, the bear living out his life at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. as the real Smokey Bear,” Ingram wrote us.

Intrigued, we dug into the archives, and found a 1978 story about Yuma’s Jim McEntyre, an eighth grade teacher at Gila Vista.

In 1950, McEntyre was a forest ranger working in the Santa Fe National Forest during a terrible forest fire. He had been working on a fire crew for three days when he and another man spotted a young bear cub stranded about halfway up a 10-foot burned pine tree.

The cub was estimated to be about three months old. The two men rescued the cub, and then McEntyre took it home. The cub’s feet had to be bandaged due to burns, and it was fed milk through a nippled Coke bottle, our archives report.

After a few days, the bear was taken to a vet in Albuquerque, due to the severity of the burns. The vet’s daughter named him Smokey, and once he was recovered, he was sent to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Later that year, he became the spokesbear for the national forest fire prevention campaign, the Sun reported.

Thanks to an eagle-eyed forest ranger, that bear cub was rescued and became an American icon. That ranger became a Yuma teacher — connecting our city to yet another amazing piece of history!

And thank you to Chris Ingram, for bringing this connection to our attention, so we could share it with readers!

DO YOU AGREE WITH THIS OR NOT?

When you are shopping, there are periods of intense heat; ie, when one enters a sun-baked car. A dog cools differently than a human, and the humid air is hard on them, so they puff and huff very hard.

A store custodian confided that he picks up lots of dog poop in the store (IN THE STORE)! And somehow, people seem to think it’s not necessary to pick up after their dog! I can hardly believe that shoppers could be so gross and crass! Don’t show off your dog in this heat. Think of the dog. If you really care about your animal, keep it cool all the time at home!

Also, there are handicaps which are invisible. Doctors do not hand out the placards like candy! There are very strict guidelines!

I just wanted to respond to Jimmy Luhm’s letter!