Do You Know How Wyoming’s Great Flag Was Created?

When you listen to a radio station, you'll hear that we always have chances for you to win prizes with specific contests. For instance, you can win up to $30,000 with our win cash contest.

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Long before Wyoming had a radio station where people could listen and win contests, there were other ways to enter and win.

Wyoming's first radio station was created in January of 1930, but in September of 1916, there was a big contest that many Wyomingites were interested in winning.

The contest began appearing in newspapers across the state, and the rules were simple.

Design a Wyoming State Flag.

If your flag design was selected, you would win $20. You may think that $20 isn't much for designing a flag representing Wyoming for years to come, but $20 in 1916 equals $596.61 today.

So it was pretty good money.

If you recall, Wyoming became a state in 1890, meaning there wasn't a flag to represent the 44th state for twenty-six years.

That was remedied in 1916 when the contest began.

Wyoming's first Art Institute of Chicago graduate, Verna Keays Keyes, would win the contest.

Verna grew up in Buffalo, WY, and had just returned home to Wyoming from Chicago when her dad thought it would be an excellent opportunity for her to enter the contest.

It took a while before Verna started drawing a flag design, but she was stumped on what to draw as she began thinking of an idea.

One night, while she was sleeping, she woke from a sound sleep with the idea of the perfect design that had been eluding her.

The following morning, she started drawing the design that came to her in her sleep. When she was finished, she had drawn the legendary white bison branded with the great seal on a blue field with a white and red border stripe.

In October 1916, Verna's design was chosen from 37 entries to become the State Flag of Wyoming. In 1917, the Wyoming legislature adopted the flag.

When she initially drew the flag, the bison faced away from the staff, but in 1918, it was requested that she turn the bison's nose toward the staff.

This picture shows the before and after of the change.

The story of Verna is excellent. If you'd like to read more about her and the journey of the Wyoming State Flag, check out the fantastic article written by Kylie Louise McCormick on the WYOHISTORY.ORG website. Kylie goes into great detail about the journey after the flag is chosen.