Sacramento Post Office Invites Community to Celebrate Release of ‘Flags of our Nation’ California Stamp

SACRAMENTO — It's time to celebrate the majesty and beauty of the flag of our great state of California. The U.S. Postal Service is issuing a striking new stamp series, Flags of our Nation, with First-Class postage stamps honoring the Stars and Stripes as well as the flags of the 50 states, five territories and the District of Columbia.

The Sacramento Post Office invites you to a community celebration on Flag Day, June 14, on the west steps of the California State Capitol Building. Sacramento Postmaster Tim Padden and Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi will unveil the Flags of our Nation stamp honoring the California State Flag during the celebration. The free event starts at 10 a.m.

The original Bear Flag was raised for the first time in Sonoma, CA, in June 1846, on a date between the 14th and the 17th, by the men who became known as the “Bear Flaggers.” This flag was donated to the Society of California Pioneers on Sept. 8, 1855, and was preserved at the Society's Pioneer Halls in San Francisco until it was destroyed on April 18, 1906, in the fires that followed the great San Francisco earthquake.

The current California State Flag, adopted by the state legislature in 1911, is based on the original Bear Flag. The star was taken from the lone star of Texas. The bear is representative of the numerous grizzly bears in the state, and the words "California Republic" testify to the feisty American pioneers who settled in the territory. The bear depicted on the flag was based on the last wild Californian Grizzly Bear in existence. The subspecies is now extinct. The bear, named "Monarch," was captured at Samhain by newspaper reporter Allen Kelley and was subsequently moved to Woodwards Gardens in San Francisco. After the bear's death in 1911, it was preserved at the Academy of Sciences at Golden Gate Park.