By Mike Rosso
Several months back I decided to make a slight change in the design of the Colorado Central website, coloradocentralmagazine.com. On the top banner, I incorporated the theme of the Colorado flag to reflect our connection to, and pride in, this great state.
Since then, I’ve begun to see the flag – in various incarnations – just about everywhere; on hats, T-shirts, bumper stickers, product labeling and more. I don’t think this is just coincidence. There seems to be a lot of overall pride in this state lately. Folks are glad to live here and are not shy about advertising that fact. Having lived in Colorado for nearly 35 years, I’ve never seen this level of interest in the simple yet elegant design that is our state flag.
Designed by Andrew Carlisle Johnson, the official Colorado state flag was adopted on June 5, 1911.
The colors chosen for the state flag represent the environmental features of our state. The gold depicts the large amount of sunshine the state receives. The blue symbolizes its blue skies. White represents the snow-capped mountains of Colorado and red represents the color of much of the state’s burnt-sienna soil. It was also stipulated in 1911 that the flag should have an attached cord of gold and silver, intertwined with gold and silver tassels.
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Over the years, there has been some controversy over the flag. In the initial legislation, the precise colors of the flag were not designated, and on Feb. 28, 1929, the issue was resolved by the Colorado General Assembly, which stipulated that the red and blue colors in the flag were to be the same as the national flag, Old Glory.
The size of the letter “C” became an issue in 1964, leading the assembly to again revise the 1911 legislation, changing the distance from the staff for the letter “C” and its diameter, requiring the diameter of the gold disc to be equal to the center stripe. The state flag is also used in the design of Colorado state highway markers.
Now that I’ve mentioned it, readers may themselves start to notice the proliferation of the flag. How many residents of other states demonstrate the kind of pride in where they live as much as Coloradans?
