Alabama State Flag

The Alabama state flag features a crimson St. Andrew’s cross on a white field, patterned after the Confederate Battle Flag, and adopted in 1895. The bars forming the cross must not be less than six inches broad and must extend diagonally across the flag from side to side. Flag was adopted in 1895.

Alaska State Flag

Alaska adopted the flag for official state use in 1959. The blue field represents the sky, the sea, and mountain lakes, as well as Alaska’s wildflowers. Emblazoned on the flag are eight gold stars: seven from the constellation Ursa Major, or the Big Dipper. The eighth being the North Star, representing the northern most state.

Alaska’s flag as designed in 1926 by a 13-year-old Native American boy, Bennie Benson, from the village of Chignik. Bennie received a 1,000-dollar scholarship and a watch for his winning entry in the flag design contest.

Arizona State Flag

The Arizona State flag features 13 rays of red and gold on the top half of the flag represent both the 13 original colonies of the Union, and the rays of the Western setting sun. Red and gold were also the colors carried by Coronado’s Spanish expedition in search of the Seven Cities of Cibola in 1540. The bottom half of the flag has the same Liberty blue as the United States flag. Since Arizona was the largest producer of copper in the nation, a copper star was placed in the flag’s center.

Arkansas State Flag

This Arkansas state flag has a red background with a blue-bordered white diamond. The symbolism behind this design is quite complex. For example, the diamond represents Arkansas’ status as the only diamond bearing state in the union (although this is no longer true after diamonds were discovered in Montana and Colorado). There are 25 stars around the diamond border are because Arkansas was the 25th state to join the union. The star above the word Arkansas represents the Confederate States of America while the three stars below actually represent three different things. Arkansas has belonged to three nations (France, Spain and the United States), the Louisiana Purchase brought Arkansas into the U.S. in 1803 and Arkansas was the third state to form the Louisiana Purchase. The flag was created by Willie Kavanaugh Hocker in a 1912 contest.

California State Flag

Often called the “Bear flag”, the California flag was raised at Sonoma on June 14, 1846, by a group of American settlers in revolt against Mexican rule. The flag was designed by William Todd on a piece of new unbleached cotton. The star imitated the lone star of Texas. A grizzly bear represented the many bears seen in the state. The word, “California Republic” was placed beneath the star and bear. In 1911, Governor Hiram Johnson made the “Bear Flag” the official state flag.

Colorado State Flag

This Centennial State’s flag consists of three horizontal stripes – the top and bottom stripes are blue and the middle stripe is white. There is a gold disk with a red “C” around it; the disk is the same size as the middle stripe. The Colorado flag was designed in 1911 by Andrew Carlisle Johnson and adopted on June 5th.

The exact shade of the red and blue was chosen in 1929 – it is the same as the U.S. flag. The blue represents the skies, the gold – the sun, the white – the snowy mountains and the red – the earth.

Connecticut State Flag

Connecticut’s flag consists of an azure blue background with a white shield in the center; the banner under the shield translates to “He who transplanted, sustains,” which is the state motto. The shield has three grapevines on it – each holds three bunches of grapes. The flag was approved by the Connecticut Assembly in 1897. In the original seal, there were 15 grapevines; this number was reduced to three to represent the three original colonies of New Haven, Saybrook and Connecticut (Hartford).