California State Flags

California State Flags

The Bear Flag is one of the few state flags most Americans can draw from memory, and one of the few that started as an act of rebellion rather than an act of legislation. If you are flying it over a house in Fresno, a dealership in Sacramento or a school in San Diego, this is where the sizes, the materials and the specification live.

Every California flag we make is printed and finished in the United States in commercial nylon or two ply spun polyester, from 2x3 feet up to 12x18 feet.

Which size California flag do I need?

If you know your flag size, start here.

• 2 x 3 feet — a 5 foot flagpole on a house bracket, a garden pole, a boat or RV staff, or an indoor stand
• 3 x 5 feet — a 20 foot in-ground flagpole, or a 6 foot flagpole on a house bracket. The most common residential size.
• 4 x 6 feet — a 25 foot flagpole
• 5 x 8 feet — a 30 foot flagpole
• 6 x 10 feet — a 35 to 40 foot flagpole
• 8 x 12 feet — a 40 to 50 foot flagpole
• 10 x 15 feet — a 50 to 60 foot flagpole
• 12 x 18 feet — a 60 to 80 foot flagpole

If you know your flagpole height, start here.

• House bracket, 5 or 6 foot flagpole — 2 x 3 feet, or 3 x 5 feet on a 6 foot flagpole
• 15 foot flagpole — 3 x 5 feet
• 20 foot flagpole — 3 x 5 feet
• 25 foot flagpole — 4 x 6 feet
• 30 foot flagpole — 5 x 8 feet
• 35 foot flagpole — 6 x 10 feet
• 40 foot flagpole — 6 x 10 feet, or 8 x 12 feet if you want it to read from a distance
• 45 to 50 foot flagpole — 8 x 12 feet
• 50 to 60 foot flagpole — 10 x 15 feet
• 60 to 80 foot flagpole — 12 x 18 feet

Both tables come from the same rule: your flag's length should run about a quarter to a third of your flagpole's height. Where two sizes fit, the smaller one flies more often and lasts longer; the larger one reads from further away.

Nylon or polyester?

Nylon is the right answer for most poles. It is light for its strength, so it flies in a breeze that would leave a heavier cloth hanging, and it sheds water rather than soaking it up. On a residential pole a flag that does not move looks worse than one that does.

Two ply spun polyester is heavier and coarser, closer to cotton in the hand. It is the choice for a site that gets hard, sustained wind — a coastal installation, an exposed commercial lot, a pole on a ridge. It needs more wind to fly properly, and in return it takes more punishment.

Both are printed in UV resistant ink and finished the same way: heavy duty white reinforced heading, solid brass grommets up to 6x10 feet, rope and plated steel thimbles from 8x12 feet up.

The official specification

California is one of the states that legislates its flag in detail. California Government Code Section 420 sets out the proportions, the placement of the star, the bear and the red stripe, and the exact colors. The 1953 revision is what fixed those colors and ended decades of flags that were recognizably the Bear Flag but no two alike.

If you are buying for a city, a county, a school district or a state agency, that is the number your specification will reference, and every California flag we make is built to it.

History of the California state flag

The Bear Flag was not designed. It was improvised.

In June 1846, with war between the United States and Mexico about to break out, a group of American settlers in the Sacramento Valley seized the Mexican garrison at Sonoma. They needed a flag, and they made one out of what they had: a piece of unbleached cotton, some red flannel reportedly cut from a petticoat, and paint mixed on the spot. William L. Todd — a nephew of Mary Todd Lincoln — painted a grizzly bear, a five pointed star, a red stripe along the bottom and the words CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC.

The star echoed the Lone Star of the earlier California revolts. The grizzly was chosen because it was the animal Californians feared and respected most; local accounts say some of the Mexican residents thought it looked more like a pig.

The California Republic lasted twenty-five days. On July 9, 1846 the United States Navy raised the Stars and Stripes at Sonoma and the Bear Flag came down. The original was preserved, sent to San Francisco, and destroyed in the fire that followed the 1906 earthquake.

It might have ended there. Instead the design kept being flown, unofficially, for sixty-five years — at fairs, on public buildings, by veterans' groups — until the Legislature finally made it the state flag on February 3, 1911.

The bear on the modern flag is not Todd's. It was redrawn from photographs of Monarch, a California grizzly captured in 1889 and kept at Golden Gate Park until his death in 1911. He was among the last of his kind; the California grizzly was extinct in the wild within twenty-five years. The bear on the flag walks on all fours, facing the hoist, on a patch of green grass, with the star above and ahead of him and CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC lettered beneath.

So the state flies an animal it no longer has, under the name of a republic that lasted less than a month. It is a stranger flag than most people realize, and a better one.

Common questions

Are your California flags made in the United States? Yes. Printed, sewn and finished in the USA, in American cloth.

How long should a California flag last? On a residential pole flown daily, expect a season to two seasons in most of the state, less where wind and sun are hard. Rotating two flags roughly doubles the life of both, because a flag recovers between flights.

What is the difference between the sizes above and below 8x12 feet? Up to 6x10 the flag is finished with a heavy duty heading and two solid brass grommets. From 8x12 up it carries a rope sewn the full length of the heading, two plated steel thimbles and one center grommet in a reinforced sleeve, because two grommets cannot carry that much cloth.

Do you ship to California? Yes, and to every state. Orders over $25 ship free.

Can a city or school buy from you? Yes. We supply cities, counties, school districts and agencies, and we accept tax exempt orders. Payment is taken at checkout.

What else you might need

A flag is half the installation. We also carry outdoor flagpoles, flagpole brackets, halyard, flag snaps, ball ornaments and solar flagpole lighting.

Flying California under the United States flag on one halyard? The US flag goes above and must be the same size or larger. Looking for another state? See all state flags.