Flag of California

The flag of California was first flown during the Bear Flag Revolt as the flag of the California Republic, and a modified version was then adopted by the California state legislature in 1911 as the state flag. The flag of the U.S. state of California is often called the Bear Flag.

The modern state flag is white with a wide red strip along the bottom. There is a red star in the upper left corner and a grizzly bear facing left in the center, standing on a patch of green grass. The bear depicted is a California grizzly bear, a subspecies that is now extinct. The five-point star is a nod to the Republic of Texas, and the bear represents strength.^[1]

Original Flag

According to the California Blue Book, "(t)he flag was designed by William Todd on a piece of new unbleached cotton. The star imitated the lone star of Texas. A grizzly bear represented the many bears seen in the state. The words ‘California Republic’ were placed beneath the star and bear."

The original bear was near the top, looked somewhat like a pig, and had no ground to stand on (see picture).

History

The original Bear Flag was raised for the first time in Sonoma, California on June 14, 1846, by the "Bear Flaggers" led by William B. Ide who said he wished to "bring freedom to the Spaniards." He was made President of the short-lived California Republic. California had been under Mexican rule since Mexican independence in 1821 as the department of Alta California, and under the control of Spain for many years before that.

The original Bear Flag and the republic it symbolized had a brief career, from June 14 until July 9. On July 9, 1846 Commodore John Drake Sloat of the United States Navy's Pacific Squadron first raised the 28-star American flag at Monterey, the capital of Alta California, and claimed the territory for the United States. This revived the earliest claims on California by his namesake, Sir Francis Drake (in 1579), and made good American colonial claims on the lands from the Atlantic to the Pacific, "from sea to sea" in the 1600s.

Two days later Navy Lt. Joseph Warren Revere arrived in Sonoma and hauled down the Bear Flag, running up in its place the Stars and Stripes. Revere handed the Bear Flag to Midshipman John E. Montgomery, who, because the flag snagged a few times as it was lowered, would later write in a letter to his mother "Cuffy came down growling"—"Cuffy" being his nickname for the bear on the flag.

The original Bear Flag was preserved in San Francisco until it was destroyed on April 18, 1906 in the fires that followed the great San Francisco earthquake. Today, a replica hangs on display in the Sonoma Barracks, or El Presidio de Sonoma. There is also a statue in the plaza of Sonoma, California depicting the raising of the flag. (A fictionalized version of this site was featured in the 2005 film The Legend of Zorro.)

Notes

References

• Smilie, Robert A. (1975). The Sonoma Mission, San Francisco Solano de Sonoma: The Founding, Ruin and Restoration of California's 21st Mission. Valley Publishers, Fresno, CA. ISBN 0-913548-24-3. 

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