Bear Flag Sesquicentennial Time Capsule
Sonoma, Sonoma County, California
Marker Inscription
Sesquicentennial Time Capsule Original site of the "Bear Flag Raising" A record of the 1996 Bear Flag Sesquicentennial Commemoration and Times, to be opened at the Bicentennial Commemoration in 2046.
Erected by Native Sons of the Golden West
The Story
Set at the very spot where the Bear Flag was raised in 1846, this time capsule was sealed in 1996 during the 150th-anniversary commemoration of that event, to be opened at the bicentennial in 2046. It links the founding moment of California's short-lived republic to the community that still gathers on Sonoma's plaza to remember it. The marker turns a historic site into a bridge between generations.
Why it matters
It fixes and honors the exact location of the Bear Flag Raising, one of the founding episodes of American California.
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Related events
- · Bear Flag Revolt
- · 1996 Bear Flag Sesquicentennial
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Bear Flag Revolt Monument
Sonoma, CA
On June 14, 1846, a band of American settlers in Mexican Alta California seized the town of Sonoma and raised a hastily made flag bearing a grizzly bear and a lone star, declaring the short-lived 'California Republic.' The Bear Flag Revolt lasted only weeks before U.S. forces folded it into the Mexican-American War, but it gave California its lasting emblem. This monument, erected on Independence Day 1907 near Sonoma Plaza, commemorates that day.
Bear Flag Monument (1907)
Sonoma, CA · est. 1907
This monument, dedicated on Independence Day in 1907, commemorates the raising of the Bear Flag at Sonoma on June 14, 1846. On that day American settlers declared an independent "California Republic" in what was then Mexican territory. The gesture lasted only weeks before U.S. forces asserted control during the Mexican-American War, but its bear-and-star emblem endured as California's state symbol.
Bear Flag Monument
Sonoma, CA
On June 14, 1846, a band of American settlers known as the Bear Flag Party raised a homemade flag on this spot and declared California's independence from Mexican rule, launching the short-lived Bear Flag Republic. Weeks later, on July 9, 1846, Lieutenant Joseph W. Revere lowered the Bear Flag and raised the American flag, following the U.S. seizure of Monterey by Commodore John Drake Sloat. This monument, erected by the Native Sons of the Golden West and the State of California, commemorates those events.
Bear Flag Raising, June 14, 1846
Sonoma, CA · est. 1914
In June 1846, a small band of American settlers in Mexican Alta California seized the town of Sonoma and raised a hastily made flag bearing a grizzly bear and a lone star, proclaiming a short-lived "California Republic." The uprising, remembered as the Bear Flag Revolt, unfolded just as the United States and Mexico slid into war. Within weeks U.S. forces took control, and the improvised banner became the ancestor of California's state flag.