HistoricSiteMarkers
Early Republic

John B. Montgomery

San Francisco, San Francisco, California

Marker Inscription

On this spot the American Flag was first raised in San Francisco by Commander John B. Montgomery of the U.S.S. Portsmouth July 9 1846 Marked by the Daughters of the American Revolution San Francisco Chapters 1924

Erected by Daughters of the American Revolution

The Story

On July 9, 1846, at the height of the Mexican-American War, Commander John B. Montgomery of the U.S.S. Portsmouth came ashore and raised the American flag over the little bay-side settlement of Yerba Buena โ€” soon to be renamed San Francisco. The act signaled the United States' seizure of California from Mexico. In 1924 the Daughters of the American Revolution marked the spot.

Why it matters

This flag-raising was a founding moment for American San Francisco and a milestone in the U.S. conquest of California during the westward expansion of the 1840s.

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Related people

  • ยท John B. Montgomery

Related events

  • ยท Raising of the U.S. flag at San Francisco, 1846

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

Bear Flag Raising, June 14, 1846

Sonoma, CA ยท 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.

Bear Flag Monument

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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 Sesquicentennial Time Capsule

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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.

Bear Flag Monument (1907)

Sonoma, CA ยท 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.