Flag of California

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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 and signed into law by Governor Hiram Johnson in 1911 as the official state flag. In 1953, the design and specifications for the state flag were standardized in a bill signed by then California Governor Earl Warren. The California State Flag is often called the Bear Flag and in fact, the statute adopting the flag, Gov. Code 420, states: "The Bear Flag is the State Flag of California."

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(toward the hoist) in the center, standing on a patch of green grass. The bear depicted is a California grizzly bear, a subspecies that is now extinct. There is speculation that the five-point star is a nod to the Republic of Texas, and the bear represents strength.

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Colors
The colors of the State Flag of California are specified in the following shades:

Color scheme Irish Green White Old Glory Red Maple Sugar Seal
Pantone 348 Safe 200 729C 462C
Cable colors 80120 80002 80108 80153 80192

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."

According to the Sonoma State Historic Park the construction of the flag was described as such:

“ At a company meeting it was determined that we should raise a flag, and that it should be a bear en passant [French: 'in passing'], with one star. One of the ladies at the garrison gave us a piece of brown domestic, and Mrs. Captain John Sears gave us some strips of red flannel about 4 inches wide. The domestic was new, but the flannel was said to have been part of a petticoat worn by Mrs. Sears across the mountains…I took a pen, and with ink drew the outline of the bear and star upon the white cloth. Linseed oil and Venetian red were found in the garrison, and I painted the bear and star…Underneath the bear and star were printed with a pen the words 'California Republic' in Roman letters. In painting the words I first lined out the letters with a pen, leaving out the letter 'i' and putting 'c' where 'i' should have been, and afterwards the 'i' over the 'c'. It was made with ink, and we had nothing to remove the marks. ”

-William L. "Bill" Todd, artist of original Bear Flag .

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

History
The original Bear Flag was raised for the first time in Sonoma, California on June 14, 1846, by the men who became known as 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 7, 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, on July 9, 1846, Navy Lt. Joseph Warren Revere arrived in Sonoma and hauled down the Bear Flag, running up in its place the Stars and Stripes. The Bear Flag was given to young John E. Montgomery(son of Commander John B. Montgomery of the U.S.S. Portsmouth), 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 Bear Flag given to young Montgomery returned with the U.S.S. Portsmouth to the east coast of the U.S. in 1848, but in 1855 was returned to California. This flag was donated to the Society of California Pioneers on September 8, 1855 and was preserved at the Society's Pioneer Halls 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 commemorating the raising of the flag, the Bear Flag Monument. (A fictionalized version of this site was featured in the 2005 film The Legend of Zorro. )

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