SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, March 9, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Utah officially has a new state flag.
The “beehive flag” emerged from a community effort that began in 2020 to create a new state flag representing Utah today while honoring the state’s history.
State leaders gathered Saturday at the Utah Capitol to celebrate that ambitious effort as the new design officially became the state flag.
“For the first time in our state’s history, we actually have a flag with input from the people of Utah,” Gov. Spencer Cox said. “That’s something that’s never happened before. … I’m excited that this day has finally come.”
State leaders saw an opportunity to “design a flag that was more distinct from other states and that more fully reflected the beauty of our land and our people,” the governor said.
“The beehive flag is a symbol of our beautiful state with its red rocks, blue skies, snow-capped mountains and, of course, the beehive, a symbol of our industry and cooperative spirit,” he said.
State leaders say each element of the new flag honors specific aspects of Utah:
- Blue: Faith, Utah’s night skies and the historic flag.
- Red: The red rocks of southern Utah, perseverance and Utah’s unique landscapes.
- Mountains: Utah’s snowy mountain landscapes and peace.
- Hexagon: Strength of Utah’s people, cradling the beehive in a show of unity.
- Beehive: Utah’s history, community, industry and the year pioneers first arrived in Utah (1847).
- Star: Hope, the year of statehood (1896) and Utah’s original five federally recognized tribes.
The Utah State Flag Task Force was created during the 2020 legislative session, followed two years later by Utah Department of Cultural and Community Engagement’s More Than a Flag Project to solicit design ideas from Utahns.
“We asked for public input and public input came,” Cox said. “In all, we received 5,702 submissions, as well as more than 1,000 text descriptions of designs. … I think it blew all of our minds to see those actual numbers.”
More than 1,000 designs were hand-drawn flags from Utah schoolchildren.
The community-created state flag was adopted by the Utah Legislature on March 2, 2023.
Utah’s former state flag featuring the state seal, now known as the “historical flag,” will continue to fly at the Capitol, the governor said.
The historic state flag was created by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1903 under the direction of Gov. Heber M. Wells. The Utah Legislature adopted it as the state flag on March 9, 1911.
