"Smokey offered the resignation but we didn't accept it," said Hal Salwasser, acting deputy forester for the service's western region, after a 25-minute conference with bear-costumed protester Daniel Barron.
So here Sinclair stands today at age 45, 6-foot-2 in his favorite pointy-toed cowboy boots, too lucky to perish in the copper clasp of "Old Smokey," too quick for the Dixie Mafia, too felonious to be a free man.
Spuds' float followed those of country-western charmer Dolly Parton, who tossed doubloons; "Dynasty" star Heather Locklear, whose black sequined gown drew shouts from the crowd; and soulful crooner Smokey Robinson.
She says Smokey attacked her when she tried to buy tape for her boss, Richard G. Johnson, who's also the attorney handling her complaint.
They were so happy to get to the place where Smokey the Bear was found." Visitors come from all over the world, said Chamber of Commerce president Dick Beck. "It's one of the few things we've got here as far as tourism," he added.
Ms. Cunningham learned that last year when she provoked a controversy within the Forest Service by swapping the wooden Smokey Bear ruler that's given to schoolchildren for a plastic model.
"I feel fine," she said. "I wouldn't be going snowmobiling if I didn't." Mrs. Smith rode Saturday on the back of a snowmobile driven by a niece, Anne Herrin of Canaan, with Smokey's Angels Snowmobile Club.
"Then she handed me an attorney's card and said Smokey had scratched her hours earlier."
A panel of arbitrators has sided with Smokey the cat, saying the owners of an office supply business were not negligent for keeping the feline in their store after it was accused of scratching a customer.
Some of the artists who will be included in the special tribute segments dedicated to each Legend are: Stevie Wonder, Richard Marx, Dwigh Yoakam, Smokey Robinson, John Cougar Mellencamp and Oprah Winfrey.
This town of 1,200 is built around Smokey.
And defense attorney Gary D. Ludin says he's confident Smokey will beat the rap, noting that Mr. Johnson has produced no medical records.