The Smokey Bear hat, also known as the campaign hat, is a wide-brimmed hat with a high crown and four-cornered crease. It was originally worn by soldiers in World War I and later adopted by the Boy Scouts, becoming a symbol of outdoor experience. Its name comes from a US Forest Service poster featuring a bear named Smokey wearing the hat, which became a successful campaign against bushfires.
A Smokey Bear hat is a wide-brimmed hat with a very high crown and a distinctive four-cornered crease. It is popularly known as the drill sergeant hat, ranger hat, cavalry hat, Scoutmaster hat, or a lemon squeezer. The proper name, however, is the campaign hat, due to its association with the military.
The Smokey Bear hat is usually made of straw or felt and the tall crown is pinched at four corners in a Montana fold. It was originally worn by soldiers during World War I and later adopted by Sir Robert Baden-Powell, who founded the Boy Scouts and made the hat part of the Scout uniform. The hat became a visible symbol of the Scouting movement and made it even more popular with defense, military, and outdoor organizations. Soldiers, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, drill sergeants, park rangers and US state patrol officers also adopted the Smokey Bear hat.
The Smokey Bear hat was designed to allow effective water runoff and protection from the elements for soldiers in World War I, but it proved to be quite ineffective. Unlike a Stetson, from which the hat is derived, it usually comes with a chin strap. It was also not worn leaning back, but rather horizontal, or on occasion slightly tilted towards one ear.
As ineffective as the hat is against the weather, the hat became a traditional symbol of authority and outdoor experience. Modern organizations that have adopted the Smokey Bear hat have created their own unique and immediately recognizable variations. However, even if the hat is worn by a Mountie or drill sergeant, it is still universally known as a Smokey Bear hat.
The Smokey Bear hat’s name comes from a poster product in 1944 for the US Forest Service. The poster featured a bear wearing jeans and a campaign hat with the name Smokey. According to popular belief, the poster was created after a bear cub was rescued from a forest fire and named Smokey, but the opposite is true: the rescued bear cub was named after the character on the poster. The Smokey Bear with the hat posters became a very successful and popular campaign against bushfires and were used for over 60 years. The image became so prevalent that most people know the hat as a Smokey Bear hat instead of its original name.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
