In 1878, at the request of the Los Angeles "Evening Express", William L. Todd (1818–1879) wrote an account of the Bear Flag used at the storming of Sonoma, perhaps the first to be raised. Soon after, his implementation became the basis for the first official State flag. Todd acknowledged the contributions of other "Osos" to the flag, including Granville P. Swift, Peter Storm, and Henry L. Ford in an 1878 newspaper article. Todd painted the flag on domestic cotton cloth, roughly a yard and a half in length. It featured a red star based on the California Lone Star Flag that was flown during California's 1836 revolt led by Juan Alvarado and Isaac Graham. The flag also featured an image of a grizzly bear statant (standing), as opposed to the original flag, which showed it salient (leaping) or rampant (rearing up). The modern flag shows the bear passant (walking).