Brief History of the Colorado State Flag

Do you know why the Colorado flag is supposed to look the way it does? If you said, “Because it’s pretty,” you’re not wrong. But there’s more to the story than that. Read on to learn about the history of the Colorado flag and what each element of its design represents.

The current Colorado flag was designed in 1911 by Andrew Carlisle Carson and first flown over the state capitol in Denver on June 5, 1911. The original flag had a different design on each side; one side bore the state seal, while the other featured a red C with a yellow background. In 1929, the General Assembly decreed that theflag should have a consistent design on both sides, and so it has remained ever since.

The flag of Colorado consists of three horizontal stripes of equal width; the top and bottom stripes are blue, while the middle stripe is white. Centered on the middle stripe is a red C with a yellow background. The meaning of these colors is as follows:
Blue represents Colorado’s skies,
White represents snowcapped mountains,
Red represents colorado’s earth, and
Yellow represents gold mining.

Each year on Flag Day (June 14), all public buildings in Colorado are required to fly the state flag alongside the United States flag. When flown alone, however, the state flag must be displayed with the white stripe above the blue stripe.

So there you have it: a brief history of the Colorado flag and what each element signifies. Did you know all that? We bet you’ll never look at our state’s flag in quite the same way again!