Official State Flags of Nevada.

Official State Flags of Nevada

The First Nevada Flag was designed by Gov. John Sparks and Col. Harry Day in 1905. The blue color was the same color as the blue field of the American Flag to depict our loyalty to the Union. The 36 stars in the flag indicated we were the 36th State in the Union. The basic design of silver & gold refers to the large silver & gold resources. No surviving original is known to exist.

Second Nevada Flag was designed by Miss Clara Crisler, a Carson City Historian in 1915. The flag was designed using the State Seal and had over 35 colors in the design. The background of the flag was the same color as the blue field of the American flag to show our loyalty to the Union. Because of the expense to produce the flags its existence was short lived. The flag was displayed on the USS Nevada until the vessel was De-commissioned in 1945. The USS Nevada, Nevada flag is at the Nevada State Museum in Carson City.

The Third Nevada Flag was chosen through a State wide contest to change the Nevada flag in an effort to have a design that was less expensive to produce. The design chosen was submitted by “Don” Shellbach III in 1929. The flag remained used until 1991. The flag background color chosen was Cobalt, but most flag manufactures made the background the same color as in the field of the American flag. Some flag manufactures also made the background Cobalt/Royal Blue. Regardless the blue symbolizes our loyalty to the United States. The star depicts that we are “The Silver State”, the words “Battle Born” reminds us that we became a state during the Civil War. The “Sagebrush” Sprays under the star is our State Flower, and symbol. The word Nevada was spelled around the star of the flag, which was not the intent, but ended up that way.

The Fourth Nevada Flag was changed in 1991. Senator Bill Raggio introduced bill 396 to amend the old flag statute. The amendment would place the word “Nevada” below the star and above the sprays of Sagebrush in a semi-circular pattern.

The reason behind the change was to have the word “Nevada” more readable, and to correct a mistake that was made in the 1929 flag legislation. The background color chosen was Pantone 286 blue, what most people now call a Royal blue. There were a few people that thought that the background color of the flag should be the same color as the field in the American flag. For the first time, actual specifications for the flag were established. The amendment was approved in 1991, and remains our current flag.

By Martin T. Smith