deliriouslove1970. The life & times of Gary and Denise Flanders. (Free and worth every penny. If you would like to compliment the editor, send to garytheflan@deliriouslove1970.com. If you would like to complain, call your mother.)

The State of Oregon.

The reason for two pictures is because Oregon is the only state in the US with two different designs, front and back.

Oregon was home to Host Nation People for hundreds of years before the white Europeans came to steal the land. Britain and the US bickered and fought over it for decades. England finally gave up and went home. As the flag records, It became a state in 1859.

OOregon has a long unfortunate history of racial prejudice. The ‘Black Exclusion laws’ form some of the worst examples of racial discrimination in US history. If you judged by the sole fact that Oregon territory banned slavery in 1843 you would not understand that the reason for banning slavery was to completely keep black people out of Oregon.

Three other distinct and harsh black exclusion laws remained on the books until 1926. The motivation for these rigid statutes was to prevent any black population in the state because African Americans would encourage the native Americans to rebel. These attitudes remain in the ‘DNA’ of the state.

The flag is a navy blue field with two different designs on front and back. The front has the date of statehood and the escutcheon of the state. (Escutcheon is a heraldic term for the main feature of a coat of arms.). On the reverse side is a depiction of the state animal: the beaver. Vexillologists don’t think much of the flag, rating it number 47 in the US.

The only other governmental entity in the world with a two design flag is Paraguay.

My Dad’s mother died in the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1920. A bachelor uncle took the baby in and raised him. When Dad went off to World War II, Uncle George moved from North Dakota to Oregon. We also have good friends in Portland, this is the reason I have the flag of Oregon.