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Original Flag
The original bear was near the top, looked somewhat like a pig, and had no ground to stand on (see picture). Image:Firstbearflag.jpg The original Bear Flag, photographed in 1890. HistoryThe 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.
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
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