Wyoming State Flag

In 1916, the Wyoming Daughters of the American Revolution sponsored a flag design contest and offered a $20 prize. Thirty-seven entries came in. The winner was Verna Keays of Buffalo, Wyoming — 23 years old, recently graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago. Her design placed a white bison on a blue field with a red border and put the state seal on the animal's body. Governor Robert D. Carey signed the flag bill into law on January 31, 1917.

There was one problem. Keays's original drawing showed the bison facing the fly — the right edge of the flag, away from the pole. Grace Raymond Hebard, a historian and professor at the University of Wyoming, argued after adoption that the bison should face the hoist instead, toward the pole, for better visual balance. The legislature never voted on it. The manufacturing instructions were simply changed, and every flag produced from the first production run onward showed the bison facing the hoist. The reversal became permanent without ever becoming law.

Wyoming's flag has not been formally amended since 1917. The direction of the bison — the only substantive change in the flag's history — was settled outside the legislature, by a professor's preference and a manufacturing decision. According to the Wyoming Secretary of State, the current design with the bison facing the hoist is recognized as the official version.

Wyoming's flag uses red, white, and blue — the same palette as the national flag, but with meanings assigned specifically to Wyoming's history. Blue forms the field and represents the sky and distant mountains; it also carries the traditional heraldic associations of fidelity and justice. White, used for the bison silhouette, stands for purity. These two are standard enough. The red border is more specific.

The red is described as carrying a dual meaning: it honors Native American peoples of the region, and it represents the blood of the pioneers who settled Wyoming. Both readings sit in the same color. That compression — two groups, one border, no resolution — is worth noting. The state assigned both meanings officially and left them there, side by side.