Capitan, New Mexico: From the Coalora Coal Mines to Smokey Bear

Smokey Bear maybe the most enduring figure to come from capitan, New Mexico, but the lucky black bear cub is only part of the story.

Fity Years Before Smokey Bear Was found—near death, clinging to a tree after a forest fire—Capitan was the site of a burgeoning coal boom. With the mine came the railroad, and with the railroad came the founding of die town. At die center of Capitan's emergence was George A. Titsworth's general store, an enterprise that set the stage for Titswordi's rise and ul...