Colorado State Flag

Colorado's first official state flag was adopted on April 9, 1907. The design bore the state coat of arms on a blue field. A single physical copy was made. It was never flown at a public event, never displayed at the Capitol, and stored away until it was effectively forgotten.

Three years later, the Denver chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution decided Colorado needed a state flag. Unaware of the 1907 design, they formed a committee and collected new entries. State Senator William H. Sharpley helped move the bill forward. Andrew Carlisle Carson submitted the winning design: blue, white, and blue stripes with a red C and gold disk centered across them.

The Colorado Senate passed the bill unanimously on April 25, 1911. The House followed on May 6. The flag made its public debut at a Grand Army of the Republic parade on May 30, 1911. The General Assembly gave final approval on June 5, 1911. Color specifications matching the U.S. flag were added in 1929. Final proportions — the exact size and position of the C and gold disk — were not set until March 31, 1964, fifty-three years after adoption.

The red C does more symbolic work than any other letter on a U.S. state flag. It represents Colorado — a Spanish word meaning reddish or ruddy, given to the Colorado River by Spanish explorers because of the red-tinted sediment in its waters. The state took its name from the river. So the C is red because the letter stands for a color. It also represents centennial: Colorado entered the Union in 1876, during the United States' centennial year. And it represents columbine, the state flower.

The gold disk reflects two things about Colorado that were both economically defining: the gold rush that drove early settlement in the 1850s and 1860s, and the roughly 300 days of sunshine the state receives annually. The blue stripes reference the sky and match Old Glory Blue — the same shade in the U.S. flag, as specified by the legislature in 1929. White represents the snowcapped Rocky Mountains and the silver mining industry that ran alongside gold.

Colorado's flag uses four colors: Old Glory Blue, white, Old Glory Red, and gold. The blue and red were specified by statute in 1929 to match the U.S. flag exactly, with Cable and Pantone values written into law. White is also legally defined.

Gold is the exception: state law does not specify its exact shade. The gold disk can legally vary between manufacturers, which is why it may appear anywhere from pale yellow to deep amber depending on who produced the flag.