In the spring of 1825, American Fur Company trappers rode into the rival camp of Hudson's Bay Company on the Weber River near Mountain Green, Utah. The Americans carried the American flag into the camp of Peter Skene Ogden and his men declaring the area to be US Territory. In fact, both groups had wandered from Oregon Territory into land belonging to Mexico. Offered a better price for their pelts, many of Ogden's men joined with the Americans, and the site became known as Deserters' Point. We don't know exactly what US flag was displayed or if Ogden flew the flag of Hudson's Bay Company. However, the Official US flag in 1825 had twenty-six stars.

If an Indian tribe showed willingness to come under the "protection" of the United States they would sometimes be presented with a special version of the United States flag by the Indian Department. These presentation flags usually had eagles and thirteen stars in their cantons.

The Mormon Battalion Flag might be one of the oldest "California" Bear flags in existence. Tradition says this flag was carried by the Mormon Battalion when it was in California in 1846-47, and in fact, the Bear was added to the flag while the Mormon troops were in California under the command of Lt. Col. Philip St. George Cooke. The march of the Battalion, first from Council Bluffs (Iowa Territory), then to Santa Fe (New Mexico), and finally from New Mexico to California is one of the longest American military marches in history (over 2,000 miles).

The Pioneer Settlement of Kanesville or Winter Quarters, located in an area now part of present day Iowa, was a way station on the Mormon Trail where Mormon Pioneers spent winter months and grew crops for resupply emigrants on their way to the Salt Lake Valley.

The Utah territory was settled by the Mormons. After the Mexican-American War in 1849, the Mormon Settlers petitioned Congress for the admission of the State of Deseret. Instead, Congress created the Territory of Utah. Subsequent petitions were rejected over the next decades due to the lack of separation between church and state within the territory and the Mormon practice of polygamy. In 1896, the State of Utah was finally admitted to the Union.

This reconstructed drawing of the Desert National Flag made by John Hartvigsen,
although shortened a bit here to fit this frame, is the most accurate proportion-wise illustration we have.

This gigantic Deseret Flag was hung from a pole next to one of several early meeting buildings known as the Bowery. Salt Lake's Temple Square and the Temple with its famous six spires wasn't dedicated until 1893, and the domed-shaped meeting hall known as the Tabernacle was yet to be completed. The Bowery was used both for religious meetings and public events.

The huge flag, made just after the Mexican-American War in 1851, was 14 ½ feet tall by 45 feet long, with the union canton measuring 10 feet by 10 feet square. The newspaper accounts do not say how many stripes it had, but there are existing flags of the period with nine stripes, some had red and white stripes, some blue and white stripes, or even red, white and blue stripes.

The flag featured an eagle in the canton holding a firing field piece (cannon) in its left claw, and a beehive in its right claw. The beehive was a common symbol used by the Mormons ever since they settled the territory in 1847. The eagle holds an E Pluribus Unum scroll in its beak, and 14 stars are spread across the heavens above its head.

Made between late 1850 and early 1851, this flag was constructed like a patchwork quilt. Edward H. Williams, a tailor, and Eliza Benson, a milliner, left Great Salt Lake City in December of 1850 as part of the George A. Smith party traveling to settle near what is now Parowan, Utah. Williams and Benson gathered scraps of cloth form members of the party to make a flag. They died the cloth using vegetable dies and sewed the pieces together in the evenings to produce a red, white and blue Stars and Stripes flag measuring about twenty-one by forty-four inches.

During the winter of 1850-1851, a band of Mormon pioneers left Great Salt Lake City to found the "Iron Mission" near what is now Parowan, Utah. This handmade flag, preserved by the descendants of George A. Smith, the leader of the group, was according to family tradition raised at Heap Hills on January 15, 1851, from a Liberty Pole erected a year earlier by Parley P. Pratt and his group of explorers. Pratt and his group also raised an unknown free soil banner, reportedly bearing a single star, whose actual appearance is unclear.

In 1846, the Mormon Battalion was formed at Council Bluffs in the Iowa Territory, under the authority of US Army of the West, from a large makeshift encampment of Mormon refugees. More than 500 men, 32 women, and more than 50 children from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints volunteered to serve in the US Army. They were enlisted to join forces with General Stephen W. Kearny and fight for the United States in the Mexican-American War.

There was no standard flag used to represent the Deseret Territory (1847-1896) colonized by the Mormon pioneers in the mid-1800s. Many of the flags had red/white/blue or just blue/white horizontal stripes, sometimes with stars of white in the canton.

Unfortunately, we know little about this unusual flag´s history or provenance. Originally in the collection of the Deseret Museum, it was loaned by the L.D.S. Church for display in the old Salt Lake City Council House, which sits across from the Utah State Capitol. The flag's origins are still unknown, however, it probably dates back to territorial days.

This blue and white "Deseret Flag" is not a historic flag of Utah, but a 20th Century variant modeled after the earlier 19th Century flags. The designer of the flag promoted it as the "Mormon Flag of God´s Kingdom," or more simply the "LDS Flag," However, although the promoter suggests that it is a church sponsored flag, it is not an official symbol for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, nor is it in anyway, a church sponsored flag.

The unfortunate display of this flag as one of three permanently flown on the three flag poles at the base of Ensign Peak has given it an unwarranted impression that the flag has a historical tie to Ensign Peak were none actually exist. A dome shaped outcropping of rocks that rises 1,080 feet above the valley floor, Ensign Peak is situated at the head of Main Street (see picture of park entrance) and dominates the sky line above the Utah State Capitol, Pioneers climbed this mount two days after their arrival to get a better view of the Salt Lake Valley. Pronouncing it a "good place to raise an ensign," they named it Ensign Peak. They carried no flag with them on that day, and most certainly the "Mormon Flag of God's Kingdom" has no historic link or association with Ensign Peak.

On January 4, 1896, Utah became the 45th State to join the Union. Naturally, there was a rush to design a new national flag to display 45 stars, and in Utah they made one 74 feet high by 132 foot long, which was then the largest flag in the world, to celebrate the end of their long struggle to become a state. They added a huge enlarged star for Utah. The gigantic 45 star flag was displayed at the inaugural ceremony for Utah's statehood suspended from the ceiling of the Tabernacle. The entire community took part in those proceedings. The Tabernacle was then the largest meeting space in the Utah. The canton of the huge flag covered the dome of the Tabernacle, and had the new star symbolizing the Rising Star of Deseret displayed with an electric light inserted behind it, so that it shone throughout the Inaugural Ceremonies.

Utah's first unofficial state flag was embroidered in 1903 at the request of Governor Heber Wells. He requested help on the project from the Utah State Society of the Daughters of the Revolution explaining he needed a state flag to be display at the St. Louis World's Fair. It was Agnes Frenelius who was chosen for the project, which she completed in March of 1903. The original flag was misplaced for years and all that remained was one black and white photograph, but recently it was re-discovered and shown here in the second picture.

Utah's official flag was adopted in 1913. The flag has a deep blue field with the state seal in the center, surrounded by yellow fringe. The state seal upon which the Utah State flag’s design is based was designed by Harry Emmett Edwards in 1896. A non-Mormon, Edwards was a local artist, bank-teller and sometimes bar tender. He left Utah for the gold fields of the Klondike, and never returned to the Beehive State.

An artist at the Colonial Flag Company, produced the artwork for the corrected Utah State flag used during the Legislative process. The flag was drawn following the legal description and using the colors of the flag made for presentation to the USS Utah in 1912. Although colors were not included in the law describing the Utah State Flag as adopted in 1912 and amended in 1913, they were described in other state documents. Utah officials asked that those colors be used. However, they declined to include an illustration with the House Concurrent Resolution, saying that was not possible.