Flag of Montana

What the flag shows

• The blue field. The law calls for blue but gives the color no meaning.
• The state seal. In the center: a plow and a miner’s pick and shovel, the Great Falls of the Missouri River on the right, mountain scenery on the left, and the motto Oro y Plata, “Gold and silver,” below. The seal’s design goes back to a territorial seal by Francis McGee Thompson, accepted in 1865.
• The word MONTANA. In gold Helvetica bold capitals above the seal, each letter one-tenth as tall as the blue field. The law treats it as a label, not a symbol.
• Gold fringe. Along the top and bottom edges.

A trophy, then a regimental flag

The flag began as a prize. In 1895 Colonel Harry C. Kessler, commander of the Montana National Guard, had a blue banner bearing the state seal made as a traveling trophy for the best company at the Guard’s annual summer encampment.

When the Spanish-American War began in 1898, the 1st Montana Infantry, U.S. Volunteers, took that banner as its regimental colors, with the unit’s name added above the seal, and carried it to the Philippines. The original banner is now in the collection of the Montana Historical Society.

The state flag

In 1905 the Legislature made the volunteers’ flag the official state flag, without the words “1st Montana Infantry, U.S.V.” For the next 76 years Montana’s flag was simply the seal on blue, and it was easy to confuse with the many other state flags of the same kind.

In 1981 the Legislature required the word MONTANA above the seal. The bill was sponsored by Representative Mel Williams of Laurel to set the flag apart from similar-looking flags. The current law, last amended in 1985, specifies the gold Helvetica bold lettering.

Calls for a redesign

The flag has not changed since 1985. In 2021 Representative Moffie Funk proposed a bill to study whether it should be redesigned; it failed in the House, 37 to 63. Montana has no official pledge or salute to its flag.