The current flag of Pocatello, Idaho 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 Bannock and Portneuf ranges, 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 mountains 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, containing the city's airport. It is the principal city of the Pocatello metropolitan area, which encompasses all of Bannock County in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Idaho.
The flag of the U.S. state of Colorado was officially adopted 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.
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The Portneuf River is a 124-mile-long (200 km) tributary of the Snake River in southeastern Idaho, United States. It drains a ranching and farming valley in the mountains southeast of the Snake River Plain. The city of Pocatello sits along the river near its emergence from the mountains onto the Snake River Plain.
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, and others. Its membership of 1,100+ comprises flag scholars, enthusiasts, designers, collectors, conservators, educators, merchants, manufacturers, historians, and hobbyists from most states and provinces of the United States and Canada, and more than 30 other countries.
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Interstate 15 (I-15) is a part of the Interstate Highway System that runs from San Diego, California, to Sweetgrass, Montana. In Idaho, the Interstate Highway runs exactly 196 miles (315 km) from the Utah state line near Woodruff north to the Montana state line at Monida Pass. I-15 is the primary north–south highway of Eastern Idaho. The Interstate Highway connects Pocatello and Idaho Falls, the fourth and fifth largest cities in Idaho, and the smaller county seats of Malad City, Blackfoot, and Dubois. I-15 connects all of those cities with Salt Lake City to the south and Butte to the north. The Interstate has business loops through McCammon, Inkom, Pocatello, Blackfoot, and Idaho Falls.
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.
Portneuf Wildlife Management Area at 3,104 acres (12.56 km2) is an Idaho Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in Bannock County near the town of McCammon. The first land acquisition for the WMA occurred in 1970 from M.S. Bastian, a local farmer and rancher. Three additional parcels were acquired in 1974.
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