Smokey Bear made his first appearance on a wildfire prevention poster in 1944. Eighty years later, Smokey stands as one of the most recognizable fictional characters in the U.S. “He's an icon.

First things first. Smokey Bear’s middle name is not “the.” “The origin of the ‘the’ is somebody made a fun little song about Smokey and, to make the cadence of the song work ...