Alaska

The History of the Alaskan flag goes back to 1927, 30 years before Alaska was officially admitted as the 49th state in the union. The Alaska Department of the American Legion decided to hold a contest for children ages 12-18 to design a flag for Alaska. The goal of the flag was that it was to represent the future of the Alaskan region. A total of 142 designs were submitted and they covered a vast array of Alaskan attributes. The winner of the contest was John Bell (Benny) Benson, a 13 year old student who was living in an orphanage when the contest occurred. His design is the Alaska state flag we know today with the blue background representing the sky, the big dipper and the north star representing strength and the future of Alaska, and a forget-me-not which is the state flower of Alaska. In 1967 Alaska adopted the motto ƒ??North to the Futureƒ? which was taken from Bennyƒ??s idea of the North Star representing Alaskaƒ??s future. CVS Flags