A grizzly bear, a red star and the words California Republic: the flag of California was born in an 1846 rebellion against Mexico.
Every fact about the flag, each with what it means.
Normal flagFIAV symbol: the form of the flag.
CivilFIAV symbol: who may fly the flag.YesIt carries the coat of arms on the cloth.The flag in the words of vexillology and heraldry.
It is a rectangular field with a 2:3 ratio, white, with a horizontal red stripe at the bottom.
Each element and how many of the 1,390 flags in the catalogue carry it. In yellow, the rarest.
Every date in its story, at a glance.
The star came from an earlier flag, the Lone Star of 1836
Below it reads ‘California Republic’: a reminder of the few days in 1846 when some rebels…
California became a state in 1850
The Bear Flag was made official on 3 February 1911
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
The flag of California, the ‘Bear Flag’, is white with a red stripe at the bottom, a red star and a grizzly bear in the centre. Below it reads ‘California Republic’: a reminder of the few days in 1846 when some rebels proclaimed their own country.
In June 1846, when California still belonged to Mexico, a group of United States settlers rebelled in Sonoma and proclaimed the ‘Republic of California’. They hoisted a handmade flag with a star, a bear and that name. The rebellion lasted very briefly: the United States occupied California during its war with Mexico. The star came from an earlier flag, the Lone Star of 1836.
California became a state in 1850. The Bear Flag was made official on 3 February 1911, by a law signed by Governor Hiram Johnson.
The idea is that of 1846, but the drawing was gradually fixed over the years.
1846
The flag of the rebels of Sonoma, painted by hand.
1911-1953
Official flag since 1911, but the bear changed depending on the maker.
1953
A single drawing of the bear is fixed, that of Donald Graeme Kelley, with exact measurements and colours.
Grizzly bear
the brown bear of California, the animal the 1846 rebels chose.
Red star
it comes from the Lone Star flag of 1836, from another uprising against Mexico.
California Republic
the name of the country the 1846 rebels proclaimed.
Red stripe
it was already on the 1846 flag.
It is said the bear on the flag was inspired by Monarch, the last California grizzly in captivity, caught in 1889 on a commission from the magnate William Randolph Hearst. Today it is taxidermied in San Francisco.
Between 1911 and 1953 there was no official drawing of the bear, and each maker painted their own. In 1953 Donald Graeme Kelley fixed it from an 1855 watercolour.
In a 2001 survey the North American Vexillological Association ranked it 13th among the 50 states and as the best of those carrying words.
California and Missouri are the only states of the United States with a bear on their flag.
Buy the flag on AmazonAffiliate link: if you buy, Wiki Banderas receives a small commission.
Buy the flag on AmazonAffiliate link: if you buy, Wiki Banderas receives a small commission.
Test what you have read about the flag of California.
Text based on the article “Bandera de California (Wikipedia en español)” from the Spanish Wikipedia, published under the licence CC BY-SA 4.0.
Sources consulted:
Flag image: Original: Donald Graeme Kelley Vectorization: Devin Cook, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.
North America
North America
Other flag
Asia
Other flag
Europa
Other flag
Europa
Other flag
Europa
Other flag
Europa
