Fish Like a GIRL

Anniversaries are always fun as they are a time to look back on what has been accomplished and ahead at what is to come. There are a few big ones that are here and coming up. The Wisconsin Wildlife Federation turns 75 years old this year. I am an associate director for the Federation and I’m the editor of their Wisconservation bi-monthly newsletter.

Because of that position, I was recently entrusted with basically everything we have in the way of printed documents of our history. I would love to see this be put into a digital form or preserved in some way, At present, each year’s documents are bound in a binder of sorts and stored in a tote in the office in Poynette. That might be a project I will work on  at some point, but for now I am having a great time just going through all of the history and looking back on old Wisconservation newspapers dating back to before I was born.

Wisconsin Wildlife Federation celebrates 75th anniversary

One of the interesting ads I found upon opening the first newspaper in the 1979 binder was a drawing of an adult hunter and a young child. The crux of the message was: if adults do not work to preserve our hunting heritage, and get kids into outdoor pursuits, these things will likely not be there for that generation when they become adults. This is the same message we are doing our best to get out there yet today, almost 50 years later.

Interestingly, I just grabbed the first bound book that was on top of a stack. 

The “new,” more friendly looking version of Smokey Bear visited the Mercer library for his 80th birthday last week, to the delight of many area kids.
(Photo by Beckie Gaskill/Lakeland Times)

It contains the Wisconservation magazines from 1977. The lead story: Steel shot — Why the Controversy? We are still dealing with issues with lead in ammo and fishing equipment.

Another story talks about invasive species, but in a bit different way. Before people understood biocontrol and how moving of different species needed to be more carefully regulated, we moved things around on purpose. British starlings are said to have caused an uproar in the U.S. at the time. I have many starlings by my house, which does cut down on the food for the other birds, as they will eat a suet cake in less than two days. But, I suppose, it is a species with which we have gotten used to living.

“While such imports as the European rat and Argentine monk parakeet, like the starling, have raised havoc in the U.S. some of our exports — the largemouth bass, potato beetle and the muskrat, to name a few — have become known as ‘ugly Americans’ overseas,” the magazine reports.

The article goes on to say that while some of these species were seen as “pussycats at home,” they “swept through other lands like Attila the Hun.” It goes on to tell the story of muskrats sent to Czechoslovakia in the early 1900s as a pelt resource. They apparently multiplied quite voraciously and soon started to escape, spreading across the continent where they undermined railroad beds and dug into dikes. 

Largemouth bass sent to Guatemala in the ‘50s almost ate themselves out of house and home, eating everything from minnows to ducklings. We know more about invasive species now, and we learned quite a bit over the years about purposely moving animals, insects and plants around. But it is interesting to look back and realize, in the big scheme of things, how recently we knew so much less about things.

I know many cold winter nights will be spent curled up on the couch with a hot cup of Earl Grey tea combing through all of this history. It’s weird to some people, I know, but I love history. 

I also love learning how the human condition truly has not changed over the decades.

Smokey Bear is 80 years old this year

One thing that has changed over the years is the persona of Smokey Bear. I will explain in a moment.

When I was a kid, I lived next to Smokey Bear. I know I was a bit older, maybe even approaching my teens, when Ray Briggs and his wife moved in down the road from us. Although our houses were a bit apart, their mailbox and ours was in the same hanging mailbox situation my Dad had made in an attempt to keep the mailboxes intact during the winter. To say our plow driver was a bit reckless might be an understatement. I lived across from Stockley’s Bus Service growing up, so Mr. and Mrs. Fred Stockley’s mailbox (interestingly, I do not think I ever knew her name — she was just Mrs. Stockley) and Don Stockley’s mailbox when he took over the bus company, were hanging there, and when Briggs’ moved in, their box was in that same hanging sling hooked to a set of arms connected to a huge post Dad pounded into the ground. A long explanation, but that was how I met them, and how I learned that he played Smokey Bear at the time. I thought that was pretty cool.

Frank Brunner was one of the people credited with the idea of creating a Smokey Bear costume a man could wear.
(Photo by Beckie Gaskill/Lakeland Times)

It was also cool to be at the Mercer Library last week to celebrate Smokey’s 80th birthday with a bunch of the Mercer kids as well as some visitors to the area. 

All of the kids except one girl thought it was awesome. One little girl thought Smokey was a real bear and cried and cried, not moving one step toward that bear. I felt bad for her, but I am sure she is not the only little kid who has found Smokey a bit scary over the years.

As many may know, the first Smokey Bear costume was created in Mercer. It was made out of a bear hide, which one would believe would be the case in 1950. But the Smokey mask from back in the day was seriously reminiscent of the Easter bunnies we grew up with in the ‘70s. I am sure many readers remember those. 

I am sure there were many who were totally creeped out by them and scared to go anywhere near them. The first Smokey mask, made from a raccoon hide, I was told, conjures up those same fears. The photo should maybe be labeled PG-13. 

The story on the wall at the Mercer library explains that the first time Smokey appeared “in person” was in 1950 in the Fireman’s Convention parade held in Hurley and Ironwood on August 3, 1950. W.S. Carow, the district forest ranger at Mercer, had looked for a stuffed bear to play Smokey Bear on the float, but to no avail. He found all of the bears to be too scary (which is crazy considering what the original mask looks like), or stuffed in such a position that precluded them from being used on the float. 

This Smokey in the parade was a stuffed, wooden headed bear, which was made my Frank Brunner, a conservation aid at Mercer. Smokey was knelt in prayer, surrounded by his animal friends.

“And please make people be careful. Amen,” read the sign below him.

Once the parade was over, Ranger Bernard F. Klugow, with the feeling that Smokey Bear could be used on different floats in different positions, came up with the idea to create a Smokey Bear that a man could wear! Credit for making this costume, the story goes, should go to Neal Long, a taxidermist at Sayner and Brunner. The hides were obtained by Klugow and the sewing done by  Mrs. Ada Har, the stenographer at the station at the time. 

By the September 28, 1950 Logging Congress in Wausau, Smokey bear was “alive” and riding on a forest green truck float.

Over the years, of course, the idea came about to create a friendlier, cuter persona for Smokey, with the change bringing him about to the Smokey the Mercer kids saw last week.

Another amazing anniversary is coming up next year. It is the 100th anniversary of the Northern Highland American Legion State Park. That will be a big one, as well, and I am looking forward to learning all of the stories we can still find from that property.

Beckie Gaskill may be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].