Monarch
The last king of the grizzlies · Keeper of the Golden State
Monarch was a huge California grizzly, captured in 1889 and kept for years in Golden Gate Park. Many say he was the model for the bear on the state flag.
The legend
Monarch was a huge California grizzly, captured in 1889 for a newspaper stunt and kept for years in Golden Gate Park. California's grizzlies were hunted out not long after. Many say he was the model for the bear on the state flag, but no one can prove it.
“I'd tell him he's still on the flag.”
Where it comes from
Before Spanish settlement in the late 1700s, an estimated 10,000 grizzly bears lived in what is now California. After gold was found in 1848 hunters killed almost every grizzly in the state within 75 years. The last one known to be shot died in Tulare County in August 1922, and the last likely sighting was in Sequoia National Park in 1924.
Monarch was caught in Ventura County on the orders of the newspaper owner William Randolph Hearst, and took his name from a Hearst slogan, "Monarch of the Dailies". The reporter Allen Kelly wrote in the Examiner that the bear walked into his trap. In a later book he said Mexican vaqueros had caught it and he bought it from them, and some researchers think they lassoed it. Monarch weighed about 1,100 pounds, or 500 kilograms, and spent 22 years in captivity at Woodward's Gardens, Golden Gate Park and the San Francisco Zoo before he died in 1911.
Where to see it
Monarch is still in Golden Gate Park. His mounted body stands in the "California: State of Nature" exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences. The grizzly has been California's state animal since 1953, and a bear first flew on the Bear Flag of 1846, during a short-lived revolt against Mexican rule.
In the game
Monarch lifts his crowned head. Somewhere far off, the fog rolls back. Monarch rears up, growls and drops back onto all fours. Monarch lowers his crowned head and bows.
Guards a relic: the Golden Gate Rivet. A rivet from the Golden Gate Bridge, guarded by Monarch in the fog. Like the bridge, it holds when you take one more knock.
