The flag of Pocatello is the official flag of the city of Pocatello, Idaho, United States. The present flag was adopted on July 20, 2017, replacing the previous flag, used unofficially from 2001 to 2017. The former flag was considered by a 2004 survey of the North American Vexillological Association to be the worst of 150 selected US city flags. [1] The current flag is commonly known as the Mountains Left, while the previous flag (used until 2017) was known as the Proud to be Pocatello. [2]
The second version of the flag has been used since 2017. It is a rectangular flag with a medium-dark cyan-blue background. It includes three overlapping pink-red triangles, with the triangle on the left being the largest, and the other triangles getting proportionally smaller. Together, they represent the mountains of the nearby Sawtooth Range, specifically Scout Mountain, Kinport Peak, and Chinese Peak. At the top of the biggest triangle is a yellow compass rose, formed from eight triangular arms, that are arranged with alternating longer and shorter arms. The southern point and half of each of the southwestern and southeastern points are white, with the rest of the rose being yellow. The white portion of the rose is positioned to represent the snowy peak of the largest mountain. While not officially stated in the description of the flag, the compass rose is usually interpreted by viewers as a star in the sky. [3] At the bottom of the flag is one blue and one red stripe. The colors of the flag are described in the hexadecimal format as: [4]
Scheme | Blue | Red | Yellow | White |
---|---|---|---|---|
HEX | #3661AD | #DB2F32 | #FFCC2D | #FFFFFF |
The red triangles also represent industry, recreation, and education. The compass rose symbolizes the role of the city as the transportation and trade hub for rail, road, and air, as well as the past, present, and future of the city. The yellow color represents the agricultural ties of the region and the prosperity of the city, while the white color references the snowy peaks of the mountains. The blue background symbolizes the sky, and the blue stripe near the bottom of the flag symbolizes the Portneuf River. The design of the flag was meant to represent the history of Indigenous people from the region. It conveys upward motion, signifying positive hope for the future. [4]
The first flag was used by the city from 2001 to 2017. It was in the shape of a rectangle and had a white background with the city's logo. The upper part of the flag featured two blurred purple triangles that symbolized the Sawtooth Range that are located near the city. The triangle on the left was twice the size of the second triangle, which was located behind the first one, and partially covered by it. Each triangle had five triangular notches on the viewer's right. The bottom part of the flag displayed writing that read "Proud to Be Pocatello", distributed into two lines. The upper line included "Proud to Be", in a yellow condensed sans-serif font with black edges and shadow. The lower line included "Pocatello" in a red serif font with white inner edges and black outer edges with black shadow. The words were put together without space left between them. On the sides of the flag, at the height of the top of the text, were displayed five horizontal thin lines. The trademark symbol (™) appears next to these lines on the viewer's right. At the bottom is a copyright notice, "Copyright © Greater Pocatello Chamber of Commerce". [5] [6]
The first flag was created by the Pocatello Chamber of Commerce for their use as a logo. It was unofficially used by the city as its flag, from 2001 to 2017. [5] [6] The flag gained national attention after the North American Vexillological Association ranked it as the worst of 150 selected US city flags in its 2004 survey. Many media simplified and aggrandized this to the title of 'Worst Flag In North America'. [2] In 2015, Roman Mars held a TED Talk, [7] [8] popularizing the question of flag design and the last place of Pocatello in the survey, and motivating the city to create a new flag.
In April 2016, the city's newly created flag design committee met for the first time; Roman Mars was invited and attended the meeting. [8] The process as agreed was:
On July 20, 2017, after over one year of work by the flag committee, the Pocatello City Council approved the adoption of the new flag. The city listed 98 participants "whose submission contributed or had similar features of the final design whether through style or symbolism". [4] [9] [10] [11]
Pocatello is the county seat and largest city of Bannock County, with a small portion on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in neighboring Power County, in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Idaho. It is the principal city of the Pocatello metropolitan area, which encompasses all of Bannock County.
The flag of Colorado was officially adopted to represent the U.S. state of Colorado on June 5, 1911. The flag, designed by Andrew Carlisle Carson, consists of a fess design of three horizontal stripes of equal width, with the top and bottom stripes colored blue, and the middle stripe colored white. A circular red "C", filled with a golden disk, sits atop the stripes. All aspects of the flag contain symbolism related to the state, as the blue is meant to represent the sky, the gold the abundant sunshine the state receives, the white the snowcapped Rocky Mountains, and the red the "ruddy" earth. The gold and white portions of the flag also represent the state's gold and silver mining industries, respectively.
The flag of Minnesota is the state flag of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Its design features a modified version of the seal of Minnesota emblazoned on a blue field. The flag's first version was adopted in 1893, in advance of the state's mounting an exhibition at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. It was significantly revised in 1957 and received a minor update in 1983.
The flag of Chicago consists of two light blue horizontal bars, or stripes, on a field of white, each bar one-sixth the height of the full flag, and placed slightly less than one-sixth of the way from the top and bottom. Four bright red stars, with six sharp points each, are set side by side, close together, in the middle third of the flag's surface.
The North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) is a membership organization devoted to vexillology, the study of flags. It was founded in 1967 by American vexillologist Whitney Smith (1940–2016), and others. Its membership of 1,000+ comprises flag scholars, enthusiasts, designers, collectors, conservators, educators, merchants, manufacturers, historians, and hobbyists.
The flag of Minneapolis is the official municipal flag of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The official flag of Milwaukee, a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, was adopted in 1954. A 2004 survey by the North American Vexillological Association rated the Milwaukee flag 147th out of 150 flags of major American cities.
The flag of Denver is the official flag of the City and County of Denver in Colorado. It was designed by a North High School student, Margaret Overbeck, and adopted in 1926. A zigzag white stripe horizontally separates a red field below from a blue field above, in which is centered a yellow circle, together forming a stylized depiction of the Sun in a blue sky above snow-capped mountains. The color yellow symbolizes gold in the state's hills, and red the colored earth to which the word colorado refers. The circle's centered position symbolizes Denver's central location within the state. The white zigzag symbolizes Colorado's Native American heritage.
The flag of Las Vegas, consists of blue field with a diagonal gray stripe running from the top of the hoist to the bottom of the fly. Las Vegas' city seal, adopted in 1966, is located in the canton breaking the stripe.
The flag of St. Louis, Missouri, consists of a solid red background and three thick, wavy lines colored blue and white extending from the top left corner, bottom left corner, and center right edge. At the intersection of these lines there is a yellow disk containing a blue fleur-de-lis.
The Sawtooth Range is a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains in central Idaho, United States, reaching a maximum elevation of 10,751 feet (3,277 m) at the summit of Thompson Peak. It encompasses an area of 678 square miles (1,756 km2) spanning parts of Custer, Boise, Blaine, and Elmore counties, and is bordered to the east by the Sawtooth Valley. Much of the mountain range is within the Sawtooth Wilderness, part of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area and Sawtooth National Forest.
The flag of the state of Nebraska is a blue rectangular cloth charged with a variation of the Nebraskan state seal. The current design was commissioned in 1925, when the Nebraska legislature passed a bill stating that the flag would consist of the state seal in gold and silver on a field of blue.
The U.S. state of Idaho borders six other U.S. states and one Canadian province. The states of Washington and Oregon are to the west, Nevada and Utah are to the south, and Montana and Wyoming are to the east. Idaho also shares a short border with the Canadian province of British Columbia to the north.
The flag of Fort Wayne, Indiana, was adopted as the city's official flag by City Council on June 26, 1934. The pall design includes two diagonal white stripes converging in the circular center to form a horizontal white stripe. Red silhouettes of a Miami Native American head, a French fleur-de-lis, and a British lion grace a navy blue field. A red blockhouse is located at the center of the converging stripes, with the settlement's founding date and city name.
The municipal flag of Provo, Utah, United States, features the city's logo on a light blue field. It was adopted on January 6, 2015, after a multi-year debate to replace the previous one. The former flag, adopted in 1989, was ridiculed in particular for its perceived ugliness and its similarity to the Centrum logo, and was voted one of the worst American city flags by the North American Vexillological Association (NAVA).
The flag of Tulsa consists of an upper navy blue half and a lower beige half, separated by a gold horizontal line, with a gold Osage shield punctuating the left third. The shield contains a red circle, and a beige six-pointed star centered within the circle. The flag is notable for being one of the few modern flags to utilize beige in its design - a color often associated with faded dyes on flags from usage.
The flag of Austin is the official municipal flag of Austin, Texas. The flag simply consists of a white field with the seal of Austin without the surrounding circle of text. Below the seal of Austin is the text "CITY OF AUSTIN", written in blue and arched upwards.
The flag of Saint Paul is the official municipal flag of Saint Paul, Minnesota. Adopted via a 1932 competition, the current flag is a yellow-blue-yellow horizontal triband. A red shield depicting various aspects of St. Paul's industry and history is in the foreground and a red ribbon reading "SAINT PAUL" in yellow font below the shield.
The flag of South Bend, Indiana, was adopted by the city council during the mayorship of Pete Buttigieg on April 25, 2016. It is a field of white and yellow separated by a two blue curved lines with a white line between them and a red six-pointed star in the upper left corner.
The flag of Burlington, Vermont was adopted by the Burlington city council on November 27, 2017 during the mayorship of Miro Weinberger. It is five horizontal, zig-zag stripes of blue, white, green, white, and blue.