Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth
Country	United States
State	Texas
Flag of Fort Worth, Texas
Adopted	6 July 2004
Flag of Fort Worth 1968-2004
Adopted	4 September 1968
Score in 2004 NAVA survey	4.24/10 (67th of 150)
Wikipedia article
Flags of the World article

Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Tarrant County.

Current Flag

The city council of Fort Worth decided to change the flag of the city, making the new flag official on 6 July 2004.

Design

A white background with the text "FORT WORTH" in blue at the top, and a frontal silhouette of a brown Texas Longhorn head on the bottom.

1968-2004 Flag

Design

The previous flag of Fort Worth was a a horizontal tribar of light blue, white, and green stripes in proportions of 2:3:2. Across the top stripe, in black block letters, is FORT WORTH, occupying most of the stripe. Centered on the green stripe, in similar letters, is TEXAS. The white stripe displays a frontal silhouette of a stylized black Texas Longhorn head stretching nearly the entire length of the flag.

Symbolism

The blue stripe represents the space age to come (as foreseen in 1968). The white stripe depicts the Trinity River channel, and the green stripe symbolizes the green of the prairie. The longhorn head suggests one of the city’s nicknames, “Cowtown”, recalling Fort Worth’s early years, after railroads arrived, as a major center for the shipment of cattle.

1912 flag

The earlier flag of Fort Worth was apparently unofficial. A flag maker, J.J. Langever, designed it in 1912.

Design

Proportioned 4:7, the flag has a white field with three horizontal red stripes placed across its center creating alternating white and red stripes 25:3:3:3:3:3:25. Superimposed on the center of the field over the red stripes is an elaborate design in light blue (perhaps faded from an earlier darker blue). Centered above the lowest red stripe is a city skyline, its narrow sky filled with industrial smoke depicted over it. Resting on this portion is a sort of pillar on which a panther crouches, facing the hoist. A horse and a sheep support the pillar. Over the panther curves THE PANTHER CITY in blue. Centered above all is a five-pointed star, with half of each point shaded to give the appearance of three dimensions, and a halo of radiant lines around it. Below the skyline is a white rectangle bordered in blue, announcing "WE'RE FOR SMOKE", also in blue. All this is supported by what appears to be a white sphinx, an image popular at the time. Curved counter-clockwise below the image is another legend, ALL ROADS LEAD TO FT. WORTH, in blue. To illustrate this motto, 17 blue lines, apparently representing actual, individually labeled roads, emanate from behind the design in all directions.

Symbolism

The panther recalls another of the city's nicknames. "The Panther City", reportedly given to the city by travelers who had seen panthers in the brush near there, and even asleep on a city street, though no one seems to be certain about the name's origin. The "We're for Smoke" legend refers to the time before air pollution was a concern, when the city was courting heavy industry and factories with smoke stacks were common images of progress.

Redesigns