flag of Colorado

Like many of the Western states, Colorado has an easily recognizable design for its flag. The red C stands for the name of the state—recalling the Spanish word colorado (“red”), the origin of the name—and it also stands for the state flower (columbine) and the state nickname (“Centennial State”). The latter was chosen because Colorado became a state in 1876, when the country was celebrating the centennial of its independence.

The red, white, and blue of the U.S. flag appear in the Colorado flag, as do the blue, yellow, and white of the columbine. The area’s extensive deposits of gold and silver, which brought many early settlers to the territory and which still are actively mined, are reflected in the yellow and white of the flag. The original flag design, by Andrew Carlisle Johnson, was approved in 1911; the flag took its present form with the law effective March 31, 1964.