If you bought your Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker before 2001, this is the image that was pasted to the outside of the brown box. Perhaps you've forgotten the funky photo of the family on the porch of a log cabin.

If you compare the WSM in this photo to a current WSM Model 2820, you'll notice some interesting differences:

• It has a smooth, non-textured steel access door. The current WSM has a textured aluminum door.
• It has a horizontal line pressed into the door just below the knob. In addition to the horizontal line, the current WSM also has vertical lines along each edge of the door.
• The access door is much taller than on the current WSM.
• The screws for the cooking grate brackets are just a few inches apart, meaning that the cooking grates are very close together. The current WSM has more vertical space between cooking grates.

I would guess that this is a photo of a prototype WSM or an early production model that was subsequently redesigned as we know it today.

A portion of the label (not shown in the photo above) wraps around to the right side of the box and contains the following text (emphasis as printed on the label):

Smokey Mountain Cooker

• Delicious food first time, every time!
• It's the first smoker rugged enough to deserve the Weber name...and the first smoker ever to carry a full 5-year limited warranty.
• Built to give year after durable year of great food...heavy steel sealed in porcelain enamel, inside and out! No rusting, no burning!
• Smokes! Roasts! Steams! Grills!
• It's the smoke cooker you've seen on TV...the smoker that just won't quit.

If you ever saw the WSM advertised on television, please contact me with the details. You can find examples of other advertising on the WSM Advertising page.

2001-2004

The WSM retained the log cabin family artwork long after other products in the Weber family had their box art updated to a new, modern look. In August 2001, Weber finally changed the box label to the more corporate, less interesting version shown here. As with the previous label, this one was pasted onto the brown box.

The text on the box reads:

• Porcelain-enameled bowl and lid
• 2 Triple nickel-plated cooking grates
• Glass-reinforced nylon handle provides years of durability
• Premium grade cover included
• Two 18-1/2" diameter cooking areas

If you've read the Component Parts article, you know that the "cooking areas" are not, in fact, 18-1/2" in diameter, but rather 17-1/2" for the top cooking grate and 17" for the bottom cooking grate.

As with the previous box art, part of the label wraps around to the right side of the box. It shows the Weber logo, the phrase "Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker Smoker", and a smaller version of the product photo.

2004-Present

In 2004, Weber again updated all of its product packaging, switching from a brown box to a white box and printing the graphics directly onto the box—no more glued-on labels.

Here's the front of the box:

And here's the side of the box:

The scanned images and text from the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker box labels are Copyright Weber-Stephen Products Company and are included here for historical illustration.

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