The Making of the Arizona Flag
By Mattie L. Williams
(President, Arizona State Division, United Daughters of the Confederacy)
Why didn't some woman like Betsy Ross arise to the occasion and design our Arizona Flag? Or why didn't the Legislature at some time offer a design for our Arizona Flag?
The Arizona Rifle Team to the National Matches met at Camp Perry in 1910. Adjutant General Chas. W. Harris felt very keenly the fact that Arizona was without an emblem. It was no easy matter to design a flag that would be both attractive and have historical value. Adjutant General Harris met the occasion and designed the flag that is known today as our Arizona State Flag.
In the making of the flag, he first considered the historical value of the flag. Then, he took into consideration the colors—Arizona State colors were blue and gold and so far as known, these colors had no history. The old Spanish colors were red and gold. The colors had a historical value, being the colors carried by the Coronado Column, which was the first expedition into the territory at present covered by the continental limits of the United States.
It was in the mind of Adjutant General Harris that Arizona had stood out distinctive in its copper industry—probably will always be the largest copper producing state in the Union—so he would have the yellow to represent the copper industry.
In our United States Flag, every star represents a certain state. As Arizona was the last state to be admitted in the continental limits of the United States, the last star in the United States Flag represents Arizona, and the fact that Arizona was a western state. Adjutant General Harris well considered to use the setting sun, and—from the original colors, he used thirteen rays, showing Arizona's relation to the Mother Flag.
In Adjutant General Harris' own words, he says: “The Flag represents the following—the setting sun, consisting of thirteen rays, alternate red and yellow, or red and gold, in the upper half of the flag, the lower half being plain blue field, superimposed upon the center of the flag. In the face of the setting sun is the copper colored star of Arizona. The flag in this way carries the state colors, the old Spanish colors and the distinctive copper colors of Arizona.”
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