Flag of Nevada

How to read it

The flag is set by Nevada Revised Statutes § 235.020, adopted in 1929 and rewritten in 1991. The field is solid cobalt blue. In the upper quarter by the pole, two sprays of sagebrush, the state flower, cross at the stems to form a half wreath around a five-pointed silver star, one point up. The word Nevada is set in a semicircle below the star and above the sprays, its letters evenly spaced, and a scroll reading Battle Born rests on the tips of the wreath. The scroll and the word Nevada are golden yellow, and the lettering on the scroll is black sans serif gothic capitals. The Nevada Legislature says the 1991 law, Senate Bill 396 introduced by Senator Bill Raggio, moved “Nevada” to this easier-to-read position and also chose the colours, the material and the printing method; the state colours, silver and blue, take their blue from the flag.

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Four flags since 1905

The Nevada Legislature counts four state flags. The Las Vegas Review-Journal, drawing on the Political History of Nevada, describes them. The first, from 1905 to 1915, recommended by Governor John Sparks and Colonel Henry Day, had a large NEVADA in the middle, SILVER above and GOLD below, and 18 gold and 18 silver stars for the 36th state. The second, from 1915, was designed by Clara M. Crisler, an enrolling clerk for the Assembly: a shield from the state seal with “All for our country” and “Nevada”. It was too expensive to make, and in 1926 Lieutenant Governor Maurice J. Sullivan advertised a contest for a new design, with a $25 prize. The Legislature appointed a committee to choose a design, and on 27 January 1927 an assemblyman announced the winner, by Louis Schellbach III, an artist for the state highway department.

The clerical error of 1929

Schellbach’s design had no state name. In 1929 Assemblyman Cada Boak added “Nevada” by an amendment that put the letters in a circle around the star, the Review-Journal says, and a clerical error in that year’s flag law was found in 1989. The 1991 Legislature fixed the word’s place, beneath the star and above the sprays, in gold.