Flag of California
California’s flag, the Bear Flag, is white with a brown grizzly bear walking on a patch of green grass, a red star in the upper corner by the pole, CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC beneath and a red stripe along the foot. The California State Library says the grizzly was a symbol of great strength and the lone star a reference to the lone star of Texas.
How to read it
The flag is set in detail by California Government Code § 420, enacted in 1953 (chapter 1140); the Legislature first adopted the Bear Flag as the state flag in 1911. Seen with the pole on the left, the white field has a five-pointed red star, one point up, in the upper left corner, and in the middle a brown grizzly walking toward the pole on a green grass plot, its head and eye turned slightly toward the viewer. A red stripe runs along the bottom, and CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC sits between the grass and the stripe. The flag is two-thirds as high as it is long and the stripe is one-sixth of the height. The law gives every position as a fraction, and names its colours from the Textile Color Card Association: White (cable 70001), Old Glory red (70180), Irish Green (70168), Maple Sugar brown for the bear (70129) and Seal dark brown for its outline and the letters (70108). It is the official flag of every state, county, city and town agency.
Also searched as: bear flag, california flag, california flag meaning, california state flag, flag of california.
The 1846 revolt at Sonoma
The flag comes from a revolt of 1846. The State Library says that on 14 June 1846 a small band of settlers marched on the Mexican garrison at Sonoma, took its commandant, Mariano Vallejo, prisoner and proclaimed California a republic independent of Mexico, under a hastily made flag of a grizzly bear and a five-pointed star over a red bar with the words “California Republic”. It flew until 9 July 1846, when they learned that Mexico and the United States were already at war, and the American flag replaced it. The Secretary of State calls the flag “a romantic symbol of independence”.
The bear on the flag
The bear is the California grizzly, the state animal since 1953 and now extinct. The Secretary of State says it thrived in the state’s great valleys and low mountains, and that the last one was shot in Tulare County in 1922. The 1953 law fixes the bear’s size and place: two-thirds of the flag’s height from nose to hind paw, its eye halfway between the top and bottom of the white field.
Read next
- Next in US state flagsFlag of HawaiiHawaii’s flag has eight horizontal stripes of white, red and blue with the British Union Jack in the upper corner by the pole. Store norske leksikon says the stripes stand for the main islands and that the British flag was kept because Britain was the leading power and a safeguard against Russian attempts on the islands.
- The same shape in South American flagsFlag of BrazilBrazil’s flag is a yellow diamond on green holding a blue globe of 27 white stars, the sky over Rio de Janeiro on the morning of 15 November 1889, crossed by a white band with the motto ORDEM E PROGRESSO (“Order and Progress”). Each star stands for a state or the Federal District; the 1889 flag decree said the green and yellow, kept from the empire, recall the victories of the army and navy.
More US state flags
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with letters and numbers, squares and rectangles or stars.
Sources
- California Government Code § 420 (state flag), California Government Code § 420 (Stats. 1953, ch. 1140), California Legislature (California Legislative Information), § 420
- California State Symbols (California State Library), California State Symbols, California History, California State Library, California State Library, State Flag
- State Emblems (California Roster 2026), California Secretary of State, California Roster 2026, "State Emblems", California Secretary of State, State Animal; State Flag
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 14, 2026. How we research
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