CACalifornia State Symbols

California's defining symbol is the grizzly bear on its flag, and the animal it depicts no longer exists. The California grizzly was hunted out by the 1920s, so the state animal, adopted in 1953, is an extinct subspecies. The bear on the modern flag was drawn from photographs of Monarch, the last California grizzly held in captivity, who was displayed in Golden Gate Park until his death in 1911. That is the same year the legislature made the Bear Flag official.

Official state symbols

The poppy is the oldest entry, adopted in 1903 and still marked every April 6 as California Poppy Day. The redwood designation started as a fight: the 1937 law simply said "redwood," which left botanists arguing over whether it meant the coast redwood or the giant sequoia, and the legislature eventually settled it by naming both.

What is on the California state flag

A white field with a broad red stripe along the bottom edge. A red five-pointed star sits in the upper left. A California grizzly walks left across a patch of green grass in the center, and the words CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC run in black capitals between the bear and the red stripe.

Every element is a quotation from June 1846, when a few dozen American settlers seized the Mexican garrison at Sonoma and raised a homemade flag over it. That first Bear Flag was stitched by William Todd, a nephew of Mary Todd Lincoln, and the lone star on it borrowed from an earlier Californian independence banner. The republic lasted about three weeks before the United States Navy took over the territory. The original flag survived until the fires that followed the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed it. When the legislature standardized the design in 1911 it kept the bear, the star and the wording, and the red and white echo the United States flag the settlers wanted to join.

The Great Seal of California

The seal was adopted at the 1849 constitutional convention in Monterey, before California was a state, and the design is usually credited to Major Robert S. Garnett of the United States Army. Minerva dominates the center. The Roman goddess of wisdom was born fully grown from Jupiter's head, and she was chosen because California skipped the territorial stage and entered the Union already formed.

Around her, a grizzly bear feeds on grape vines at her feet, standing for wildlife and for agriculture. A miner works a rocker and pan beside her, for the gold rush then at its peak. Ships sail on San Francisco Bay behind, and the peaks of the Sierra Nevada close the background. Thirty-one stars arc across the top, counting California as the thirty-first state, adopted in anticipation of an admission that came in September 1850. Eureka sits above Minerva's head. It refers to the discovery of gold, and though it has been on the seal since 1849 it was not made the official state motto in its own right until 1963.

Symbols that surprise people

• California has an official lichen. Lace lichen, adopted in 2015, made California the first state to designate one. It hangs in pale streamers from oaks in the coastal fog belt.
• The state rock nearly got repealed. Serpentine was named in 1965, the first state rock in the country. A 2010 bill sought to strip the title because some serpentine contains chrysotile asbestos. The repeal failed and serpentine kept the job.
• The state gemstone is found almost nowhere else. Benitoite, a deep blue barium titanium silicate, occurs in gem quality essentially only in San Benito County, which is where it takes its name.
• There are four official state nuts. A 2013 package named the almond, walnut, pistachio and pecan together, alongside the avocado as state fruit and the artichoke as state vegetable.
• Two different dances hold official titles. Square dance was named the state folk dance in 1988, and West Coast Swing was added as the state dance in 2009.
• The state amphibian is a literary character. The California red-legged frog, adopted in 2014, is the species behind Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County."

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