In which mountain range was the real-life “Smokey (the) Bear” rescued?

Smokey Bear is an advertising icon of the U.S. Forest Service. He features in the longest-running public service announcement campaign in U.S. history, which began in 1944. The name of the character was inspired by "Smokey" Joe Martin, a New York City Fire Department hero who suffered burns and blindness during a rescue.

But Smokey is not just a fictional cartoon. The real-life Smokey was a 5-pound 3-month old American black bear cub found in 1950 after a forest fire in the Capitan Mountains of N.M. He had climbed a tree to escape the blaze; his paws and hind legs were burned. Once the blaze was out, firefighters retrieved the cub, treated his burns, and named him “Hotfoot Teddy”. His name was later changed to Smokey (after the bear in the ads). Smokey’s story soon was national news, and the cub became a celebrity, eventually being moved from New Mexico to the National Zoo in Washington DC, where he lived for 26 years. After his death in 1976, Smokey was laid to rest in Capitan, NM, at Smokey Bear Historical Park.

Smokey’s message has changed over the years; in 1944 it was "Smokey Says – Care Will Prevent 9 out of 10 Forest Fires".

In 1947 the slogan became "Remember...Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires"; it remained Smokey’s slogan for over five decades.

"Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires" was changed to "Only You Can Prevent Wildfires" in 2001.

*Smokey does not have a middle name; “the” was inserted to add an extra syllable to a popular song about him.