Flying High : Flags Through California’s History

The Stars and Stripes is honored with its own day, June 14, marking the day in 1777 when the Continental Congress adopted the first official national flag. Flag Day celebrations began about 1877 and the day was recognized by Congress in 1949.

Flag Day is not a legal holiday--banks and schools remain open--but it is a time to display and honor the U.S. flag. It seems a fitting time to recall the years other flags have flown over California in its history.

Locally, a historic raising of the Stars and Stripes occurred at Campo de Cahuenga, near modern-day Universal Studios, when Gen. Andres Pico surrendered to Lt. Col. John C. Fremont, officially ending Mexican-American War hostilities in California in 1847.

California Republic

1846

A month after the Mexican-American War broke out, there was the Bear Flag Revolt. On the morning of June 14, 1846, a group of American hunters and trappers descended on the town of Sonoma and placed General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and several other Mexican officials under arrest. The band made a new flag, depicting a grizzly bear and the Lone Star from Texas. The bear was so crudely drawn that some thought it looked like a pig. The flag flew until July 7, when the Stars and Stripes was raised above Monterey, the ex-capital of Mexican California. The original flag was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco fire. Officially adopted Feb. 3, 1911, today’s state flag refines the early design.

*

Spain

1542 to 1821

Spanish ships flew under various flags when explorers landed in San Diego on Sept. 28, 1542. The flag above was adopted in 1793. The coat of arms was redesigned in 1931 and then dropped entirely from the flag in 1936. Red and gold have been the official national colors since 1785 and have heraldic sources, coming from 13th-Century coats of arms of Leon, Castile, Aragon, Navarre and Granada.

*

Russia

1806 to 1841

Explorer Nikolai Rezanov sailed to California in 1806 and, six years later, Fort Ross was founded as a Russian settlement about 100 miles north of San Francisco. It was sold to John Sutter in 1841 and became known as Sutter’s Fort. White stands for nobility and frankness; blue for truthfulness, honor and chastity; red for love, courage and boldness.

*

Mexico

1821 to 1846

Since 1821 the flag has remained basically unchanged, the green for independence, white for the purity of religion and red for union. The emblem depicts a legend: Mexica tribesmen were ordered by their sun god to settle where they found an eagle on a cactus devouring a snake. They founded Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City, on such a site around 1325.

*

United States

1846 to Present

California was the 31st star added to the flag when it officially joined the Union on Sept. 9, 1850. Although the United States flag changed repeatedly during the past two centuries, the basic design remains the same. The 13 stripes honor the colonies that sought independence from England. In 1816, New York Rep. Peter Wendover suggested that a star be added on Independence Day each time a state entered into the Union. Since 1960, the flag has had 50 stars. In the 1800s the placement of the stars varied, often changing with the whims of flag makers who arranged the stars in blocks, circles or even in the shape of a large star. President William Howard Taft issued an executive order creating a standard design in 1912.

Sources: Flag Research CEnter, “California-Two Centuries of Man, Land and Growth in the Golden state” and “California Heritage.”