UTAH AS
I SEE IT.
Designing a new state flag offers Utahns the chance to talk about who we are now. It’s a chance to talk about the symbols and colors that represent our shared identity. Together, we can design a 21st-century flag to represent a 21st-century state.
Tell Us: How Do You See Utah?
We're inviting Utah residents – of all ages – to submit up to three flag designs. Submissions will be reviewed by the design subcommittee, who will help choose finalists. State leaders will consider final designs next fall.
Submit Your Flag Designs
Help us identify the themes, colors and symbols that should be considered on the new State flag. Enter your comments, which will inspire and shape the designs to be created by professional artists.
How Do You See Utah? Survey
Utah has long served as a meeting and mixing ground of diverse people from a variety of religious, cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds.
WHY DOES REPRESENTATION IN UTAH’S HISTORY MATTER?
There was religious and cultural diversity among Indigenous peoples before Euro-American settlers arrived, and that diversity has only increased over time. Latter-day Saint pioneers in the nineteenth century came from various parts of the globe, including northern and western Europe, but also South Africa, India, Italy and the Pacific Islands. Both enslaved and free African Americans arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847 and have been here ever since. Utah has a rich historical diversity of Asian Americans, Latin-Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Greek and Italian “new pioneers.” Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Latter-day Saints, and those of other faiths or of no faith at all have also long called Utah home.
UTAH’S FLAG HISTORY
- Utah’s original flag was created in 1903 to be used at the St. Louis World’s Fair. Utah Gov. Heber M. Wells asked the Daughters of the American Revolution to oversee its creation.
- The blue flag with the state seal and the year 1896 in white thread was known as the Governor’s flag until 1911.
- A manufacturer redesigned it in 1912, adding a gold circle around the seal. The Utah State Legislature adopted those changes in 1913.
“This is not an effort, at all, to take away our history. This is an effort to modernize a symbol of our great state.”
Rep. Stephen Handy, of the Utah Flag Task Force
Learn MoRe
People might ask: Doesn’t Utah have enough things to worry about? That’s a valid question.
Why Now?
This effort truly is about more than a flag, it's a chance to have a conversation about who we are today and choose a 21st-century flag to represent us all. Learn more about the plan to select a new flag.
Process + Timeline
