That’s right – the largest county in the United States has a flag like most counties, and like most county flags it’s been a little bit of an afterthought. Now, San Bernardino County is taking its flag seriously: blue and gold stripes are stacked around a silhouette of white mountains, and a scalloped arrowhead in the middle with the date of the county’s founding “1853.”
Five stars spread across the top of the flag representing each of its districts and along the bottom of the flag there is a reminder of what county you are standing in: “SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY” is written in bold gold letters.
As a flag, it’s doing a lot with 5 different elements vying for your attention. There is a school of thought around flag design that says it should be so simple and striking that a child should be able to draw it from memory. I’m not sure that’s the case with the new San Bernardino County flag design, but I’m also struggling to remember a time when I even noticed our current county flag flying anywhere.
It has been in use since 1984 and has some of the same design elements minus the mountains, and it’s pretty forgettable. I have to admit I’m a big fan of the scrappy flag that was put in use in 1973 – two blue triangles representing our surrounding mountains, the county’s founding date, name and arrowhead on an off-white background. Not bad.
If there is one thing about flags and signs, it’s that everyone has an opinion. My opinion is this flag is pretty decent, and kind of looks like a football jersey… but that’s ok. The county also made sure that this flag is thee county flag. To protect against the creation of alternative county flags, the Board of Supervisors adopted a flag policy that defines the flag in precise detail and governs its use along with the U.S. and California state flags.
