With two bears appearing at a local Sears store this week, my
memory is drawn to a real live bear story that was told during
my childhood in West Virginia. The day the bears fought in
Newell. The Homer Laughlin China Company, producers of
Fiestaware, built the town of Newell. Most of the infrastructure
of the West Virginia town – roads, sewers, rail lines, bridges –
was paid for by the Wells family, owners of the pottery, more
than one hundred years ago. As the pottery thrived, the town
grew. It’s the way things used to get built in America. The
pottery was successful. The owners built a park in the center of
town along with a zoo and a library, all for the betterment of
the workers and all on the company’s tab. Nobody knows where the
Kodiak bear came from, originally. Some say the massive animal
was brought back by steamship from Canada. A female black bear,
captured from the wilds of Hancock County, was brought in as the
Kodiak’s mate. Those who built the zoo never considered that two
different species of b