Salvador Vallejo Adobe

Sonoma, CA

Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (1807-1890) was born in Monterey and rose to become the most powerful figure in Mexican northern California, founding the Pueblo of Sonoma in 1835 and commanding its frontier defenses. He lived through California's passage from Mexican rule to American statehood, later serving as a state senator and Sonoma's mayor while pursuing ranching and winemaking. This bilingual marker honors the breadth of his roles as soldier, statesman, and pioneer.

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.

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.

Sonoma, CA

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.