There are only two flags in the world, the image on different sides of which is different. It is one of the North American states, Oregon, as well as a state called Paraguay, located in the central part of the South American continent and landlocked.
In the old days, such flags were very popular in the United States, but their manufacture resulted in a tidy sum, which entailed very substantial additional costs: flags had to be hung in state institutions, schools, in front of churches. Therefore, the two-sided versions were gradually replaced by one-sided ones; Massachusetts was the last to do so in 1971, after which Oregon remained the last of the Mohicans.
Today it is a dark blue cloth with symbolism and a number of letters of golden color. The visible front of the flag is provided with a slap in the form of a coat of arms identical to that placed on the seal of the state. The reverse side is decorated with the image of a beaver, which is quite funny, but has its grounds, since the beaver is the state animal of this state. In addition to the coat of arms, on the front side of the flag there is the phrase "the state of Oregon" and the year when the territory received state status - 1859. On the shield flag there are 33 stars, which indicate the fact that it was Oregon that became the thirty-third member of the Union.
When used in official ceremonies or for parades to emphasize official status, a gold stripe may be placed on the field, while ordinary civilian users are forced to dispense with it.
The ratio of length to width here is five to three.
It's interesting to note that the state's very first flag was made by two women who worked at the Mayer & Frank department store. Their names were Blanchett Cox and Margery Kennedy. The grandson of Governor Pierce Walter , the first governor of the state - in 1954 presented this canvas as a gift to East Oregon University.
The current version of the flag has been in use since February 25, 1925, but in previous years there have been repeated attempts to redesign the state flag. They continued after that, in particular, in 2009, they tried to do this as part of a statewide competition to develop the best design.
The newspaper "Oregon" published a corresponding message and invited the residents of the state to first send their works, and then posted the best ones and offered to choose the one that most closely corresponds to the ideas of the residents of the state about the ideal symbolism.
The winner was Randall Gray of Clackamas County. The flag he designed was based on a totem animal on the back of the flag currently in use. The green on his project was a symbol of forests and wastelands, and the star reflected Oregon's place in the United States.
When the contest was launched, local residents asked the newspaper to add "none of the listed" to the answer options. In the end, it was he who defeated all the others.
In 2013, Senator Lori Andersson initiated the draft law, introducing the initiative of Matt Norquist on his own behalf. The project failed to pass the committee filter. Nevertheless, it is known that the idea was based on a combination of a golden field in the roof and a blue one on the opposite side. In the canton, it was proposed to place a beaver on a golden background. Also, the author considered it expedient to add a blue vertical pillar with a white asterisk in the central part. On the reverse it was proposed to place a mirror image of the same picture; thus, the flag would remain bilateral.
