WYOMING STATE FLAG

At Johnson County Library

The Wyoming State D.A.R. sponsored a contest in the spring of 1916 to design a Wyoming State flag.  The prize was to be $20.  Verna Keays, of Buffalo had just graduated from the ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO.  Her Father encouraged Verna  to enter the contest.  There were 37 entries received.  The group voted on the entries at their yearly conference held in Sheridan that Autumn. Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard, a professor at the University of Wyoming, served at the State Regent for the D.A.R.  She called Verna and told her that her entry had been chosen and invited her to attend the conference and accept her prize.

The first six flags were produced by the George Lauterer Company of Chicago.  They were made of pure silk, with the bison and State Seal were hand painted.

After many meetings and discussions, a bill was introduced in the 14th meeting  of the Wyoming Senate by the late Honorable W.W. Daley of Rawlins, to make this the official state flag.  The bill passed and the flag was officially adopted the 31st day of January 1917.  At a joint meeting of the Wyoming Senate and House of Representatives, the flag was presented to Governor Robert D. Carey, February 16, 1919.  In 1920, folders were printed showing a picture of the new flag and giving its description.  These were given to ever school child in the State.

Keays explained the symbolism of the flag:

     The great seal is the heart of the flag and its placement on the side of a "Monarch of the Plains" represents the western custom of branding.

     The red border represents the Indian and the blood of the pioneers, who settled the land.

     White is "an emblem of purity and uprightness over Wyoming.

     Blue is for the Wyoming skies and the distant mountains.

     The combination of the colors is taken from "the greatest flag in the World, the Stars and Stripes".

One of the early framed flags hangs on the south wall of the Johnson County Library, in Buffalo, WY.  

One of the flags, complete with gold fringe, is part of the collection at the Jim Gatchell Museum, also in Buffalo, WY.

The Carbon County Museum, in Rawlins, has one, as well.

The Natrona County Library in Casper, WY has one  of the flags hanging beside a handmade prototype, on which the bison is facing the opposite direction.

Dr. Hebard reversed  the direction the bison was facing on the original design .

Several years later Verna Keays was married at her parents home in Buffalo, WY to Arthur C. Keyes.