The California grizzly- state animal. Pacific Discovery, Vol. 6, no. 4, July - August 1953

- PACIFIC DISCOVERY

50 CENTS

"i Sa es

The California Grizzly-State Animal

| A JOURNAL OF NATURE AND MAN IN THE PACIFIC WORLD

TRACY |

Charles Nahl's contemporary painting of a California grizzly.

STORER and LLOYD P. TEVIS, jr.

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THE CALIFORNIA GRIZZLY

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INCE ANCIENT TIMES, mankind, as organ-

ized in groups for a variety of purposes, has

usually sought some marker, symbol, or emblem

to portray and envisage the purpose and ideal of

each such group. Armies have their flags and their

insignia, knights bore their coats of arms, nations

and states hold aloft their shields and banners.

Each crusade, medieval or modern, seeks to typify

its purpose with a visual symbol.

In the beginnings of California - that became

a full-fledged American state at once - there was

a natural emblem conveniently at hand, both lit-

erally and figuratively in the grizzly bear. For the

"rebellion" of American settlers at Sonoma in

1846, the quickly and crudely-designed standard

bore a hint of American allegiance in the single

22

star and one broad stripe of red, borrowed from

the national banner; and to this was added a figure

of the most outstanding and powerful member of

the native fauna. The choice of emblem proved

more fortunate and more lasting than the cause

for which the flag was first raised. Three years

later the seal adopted by the Constitutional Con-

vention of 1849 had a grizzly beside Minerva in a

scene of ships and miners and rolling hillsides.

Since that time, in the century that has seen the

state's original human population multiplied many

times, the grizzly has continued to be the symbol

of California, widely used in both public and pri-

vate affairs. The grizzly itself, unfortunately,

proved too formidable a neighbor to be tolerated

and in consequence, it was quickly reduced in

PACIFIC DISCOVERY

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"OL UOHIIAR OATPOFHe ynq MO[S and UE], `stoquinu

to propose the adoption of a Seal, wanted to strike

out the bear and miner and replace them with

bags of gold and bales of merchandise. General

Vallejo, perhaps still smarting from his experiences

during the Bear Flag Rebellion, did not approve

of an unrestrained bear. He argued that if the bear

were to be kept on the Seal, it should be repre-

sented as secured firmly by a lasso in the hands of

a Spanish-Californian vaquero. Among those who

wished to keep the bear untrammeled was Major

Jacob R. Snyder, a participant in the Bear Flag

Rebellion. When the matter came to a vote, the

grizzly won by 21 to 16. To this day he stands un-

restrained by the side of Minerva, and with sub-

sequent minor changes in the design of the Seal

he has moved into an even more prominent posi-

tion than was allowed him by the convention of

1849.

The Great Seal, after being adopted by the con-

vention, was engraved and first used on December

5, 1849, by the Governor - and shortly by the Sec-

retary of State who is still its official custodian. It

is a mark of authority and might be assumed to be

of permanent pattern, yet such is not the case. No

less than four major designs were used from the

time of its original adoption in 1849 until stand-

ardized in 1937.

The original design shows the bear with low-

ered head turned slightly to the left munching on

a cluster of grapes. The margin of the Seal cuts

off the lower half of his front legs and most of his

hind ones. In the second version, which appeared

in 1883, the bear has turned his head somewhat to

the right to give a better view of his profile. In the

1891 or third version, having forgotten the instruc-

tions that he should be "feeding upon clusters

from a grapevine," the bear has stopped eating to

raise his head. Apparently, something in the dis-

tance attracted his attention, for he has moved

forward, and most of his feet are visible. This

third version of the Seal became the basis for the

official design adopted by legislative action in

1937.

Besides these four patterns of the official seal -

used by the Secretary of State, many purported

replicas but actual variants have been employed

by the state printer. This diversity came to atten-

tion in 1936 when the State Employees' Associa-

tion, wishing to have blotters printed with a rep-

lica of the seal, found that practically every de-

7

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The * Original" Bear Flag.

partment had a version differing from that in the

office of the Secretary of State. Indeed, as early

as 1855, the commission of a captain in the Na-

tional Guard bore two seals, one printed at the

top with the bear sleeping soundly and that beside

the Governor's signature with the bear standing!

The Recorder of February 4, 1937, says:

What is the bear doing? Well that depends on the

version of the Seal that you happen to study. In some

versions the rascal is lying down, apparently sound

asleep - hibernating al fresco, so to speak - in others

he is standing up. In some he appears to be smiling,

in others growling. And in all versions he looks some-

thing like a cross between a wolf and a boar, though

he is probably a grizzly.

We have consulted the California Blue Books of

various years, and find a delightful impartiality in the

matter of this bear on the Seal. The preference seems

to incline toward drawing the dear old beast "couch-

ant," as the pundits of heraldry would put it, but in

a great many examples we have found him "statant,"

that is to say, standing at gaze, though what he is gaz-

ing at remains a mystery.... Boa; flag

On June 14, 1846, a group of American settlers

revolted against Mexican authority in California.

Having taken Sonoma, then a military post of the

Mexican government, the insurgents needed a

banner. They believed that they did not have the

right to use the flag of the United States but evi-

dently felt the need of at least a star and a stripe.

Someone proposed the grizzly as a motif, an ani-

mal then common locally whose reputation for

strength and unyielding resistance could be at-

tested by all the participants. The banner was

identified with their cause by being marked "Cali-

fornia Republic." These, then, were the elements

used to make up the standard for the so-called

"Bear Flag Rebellion."

A considerable number of persons were in-

volved in the incident. It might be expected that

their recollections and whatever they individually

wrote then or later would yield accounts of the

affair and of the making of the flag that would be

in substantial agreement. Unfortunately, the case

is quite the reverse. Starting soon after the revolt

and continuing down through the years there has

been great difference in the reports as to who

made the flag, the materials and colorings used,

and the actual design. It is not our purpose here

to enter this controversy. All we know definitely

Another "Original" Bear Flag. Bear Guidon.

California grizzly. In turn, Don Greame Kelley,

editor of Pacific Discovery, was commissioned to

draw such a "portrait." It was felt that the general

pose of the bear should follow that of the Nahl

representation, since the latter has been on the flag

for a number of years. The new drawing makes

the figure more in accord with what has been

learned of the conformation of the California griz-

zly. Senate Bill 1014 of the 1953 Legislature is in-

tended to amend Section 420 of the Government

Code by adding to the last sentence the words:

", .. and shall be designed on the flag to corre-

spond substantially with the following repre-

sentation thereof: [here the new illustration is

shown]."

Bear replicas

Far antedating official use of the grizzly as a

state symbol was its appearance on a fountain

at the Santa Barbara Mission. In 1808, the mission

fathers had constructed a fountain in Moorish de-

sign that was fed by water brought by a trench

from the neighboring canyon. The playing water

fell into a large octagonal bowl, then was con-

veyed in a pipe that supplied a huge trough where

26

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was passed

in June 1953,

Earl Warren,

Indian girls were employed in communal clothes

washing - the first California laundromat. The

input of water to the trough was through the

mouth of a stone bear carved on the head of the

basin and the overflow spout at the far end had

similarly a bear, of which there now remains only

the front paws, with distinctive long grizzly-like

claws.

Among decorative insignia using the California

grizzly we have learned of several metal plaques.

One, of bronze about 10% inches long and deli-

cately sculptured, was purchased at a second-hand

store on McAllister Street in San Francisco some

years ago by Mr. Francis P. Farquhar. The sec-

ond, of iron, of the same size but cruder in detail,

is in the State Historical Museum at the town of

Shasta. The two plaques show some resemblance

in posture to the Nahl illustrations. Other such

plaques are reported to be in existence. No infor-

mation has come to us as to their origin, manu-

facture, or date.

Two other uses of the bear in decorative insig-

nia are seen in the badge of the Society of Califor-

nia Pioneers and in the California souvenir used

at the World Columbian Exposition at Chicago

in 1898.

PACIFIC DISCOVERY

The new design

for the bear on the

California Flag.

Senate Bill 1014

signed by Governor

and is now law.

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