The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG - "Remember... Only YOU can prevent forest fires," which originated in 1947, is a slogan that children everywhere associate with Smokey the Bear.

The Smokey Bear Wildfire Prevention campaign was created in 1944 and is the longest-running public-service advertising campaign in U.S. history. There is a lot of interesting information at smokeybear.com, which asks you to celebrate 80 years of Smokey by exploring Smokey's history throughout the generations.

Weller Public Library's Supervisor, Sarah Roberts, and her assistant, Jesse Brown, coordinated with the US Forest Service to bring Sm...