How many flags do we need to fly over the Sonoma City Hall to give us adequate pride in our illustrious history? Are three flags not enough? Are eight too many? Has Sonoma’s historic flag count of seven been determined by actual historical events or by the space on the City Hall second floor balcony? We all know that Sonoma is blessed with enough history for at least three or four towns and, despite that, we Sonoma residents have never been reluctant to pile on additional “facts” to embellish an already remarkable story.
There are, indeed, seven flags that have been traditionally accepted as representing Sonoma’s flag iconography over the years prior to the California statehood period which began on Sept. 9, 1850, and they are nearly always described “as the seven flags that have flown over Sonoma.” Nothing could be further from the truth. That claim is an insult to any historian who holds even the slightest degree of sensitivity to historic accuracy -- but seven flags there are and, doubtlessly, seven flags shall remain!
Our seven glorious banners are as follows in order of the year attributed to an event as decided in our misty past as having some (and, for some, remote) historical association with our city:
The English Flag, whose Cross of St. George was replaced by the well-known Union Jack in 1604, and which has been included in Sonoma’s “Seven” because of the alleged landing on the Sonoma Coast by Sir Francis Drake in 1579, an event still disputed by some historians as actually having taken place in California, but whose landing site has been declared by the U.S. Department of the Interior to have taken place on the Marin Coast, not Sonoma’s. In any event, this flag never flew over Sonoma as Sonoma did not exist in 1579!
The Spanish Flag, a maritime flag of 1765, has been displayed as part of the “Sonoma Seven” but has been accompanied by an earlier date of 1543. The Spanish Flag of 1543 was quite a different flag from the 1765 flag. A flag of that earlier date was undoubtedly the Burgundian Cross that is actually used by other California cities in their historic flag arrays. Again, neither of these flags ever flew over Sonoma as Sonoma did not exist while California was under Spanish rule.
The Russian-American Company Flag was not even a “sovereign” flag but a flag authorized by the Imperial Russian Government for a commercial trading company founded in 1805. The date for this flag in Sonoma’s lineup is 1842 when this commercial enterprise was flourishing at Fort Ross on the Sonoma Coast. The company never claimed any of the territory beyond its headquarters compound and a small outpost and, despite visits between the Russians and Gen. Vallejo, his brother and his local Indian allies, the Russians certainly never brought their flag down to fly over Sonoma.
The Mexican Empire Flag, a flag that was in service from 1821 when Mexico gained its independence from Spain until 1823 when an internal Mexican revolution created the First Mexican Republic is shown as part of Sonoma’s historic flags. It never flew over the Pueblo of Sonoma as the pueblo was not founded until 1835 and, in fact, this flag did not even fly over the Sonoma Mission San Francisco de Solano which was founded in 1823, just after the Mexican Empire ceased to exist.
The First Mexican Republic resulted from a revolt against the Mexican Emperor Agustín de Iturbide in 1823 and its flag, whose period of validity was from 1824 to 1864, is the first of only three of the seven historic flags of Sonoma that actually flew over the fledgling Pueblo de Sonoma whose founding on June 24, 1835, marked the first civil authority of our town. This flag was probably also flown at the Mission San Francisco de Solano between its founding on July 24, 1823, and when the mission officially ceased to exist on Nov. 3, 1834.
The Bear Flag of the unsuccessful California Republic was raised in front of the Sonoma Barracks on June 14, 1846, and was valid for only 25 days. It was flown only around Sonoma, was never recognized by any other authority, sovereign or otherwise, and is the second of the three flags of Sonoma’s seven that actually flew over Sonoma.
The U.S. Flag of 28 stars was raised in Sonoma on July 9, 1846, when the Bear Flag Republic collapsed and when the American military assumed military and civil control of California, an event that occurred early in the Mexican-American War. This American Flag was the third of the only three flags of the “Sonoma Seven” that flew in its pre-statehood period.
Thus, it is historical fact that only three of Sonoma’s seven historic flags ever really flew over our town. This iconoclastic statement is not meant to disparage the handsome display of the seven flags selected for some historical association to Sonoma, however tenuous, but to contribute to my ongoing efforts to separate fact and fable in our city’s history. This is, undoubtedly, an unpopular position but don’t we already have enough “fake news” nowadays?
Robert Demler is the Sonoma City Historian.
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