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Municipalities listed below have been researched for municipal flags, mainly by searching their websites. Commonly U.S. cities use the city seal on a plain field as the city flag, so we have included information about the city seal where no
other flag is known.
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See also:
The website at www.danapoint.org shows
a very complex circular seal. It is edged by a gold and dark blue cable-laid
rope, which sets the nautical theme of the seal. The outer circle is blue, with
the words 'DANA POINT' and 'CALIFORNIA' in light blue block letters and a small
light blue spot separating the name of the city from that of the state; these
appear at the top of the outer circle, with the date '1989' similarly at the
bottom. The outer circle is fimbriated in both light and dark blue. The central
image features a sailor naked to the waist outlined in dark blue in the right
foreground. He is standing on what appears to be a dark gray quayside, with
light blue landscape to the left. In the center is the Pacific Ocean in a medium
blue, while in the left foreground a two-masted black sailing ship with empty
spars is anchored; the bowsprit of the ship projects into the outer circle. The
ship is anchored in front of a buff-colored bluff, while directly over the
vessel a golden sun hangs in a pale blue sky.
Ron Lahav, 10 September 2004
The website at www.ci.danville.ca.us
displays no municipal heraldry.
Ron Lahav, 10 September 2004
The website at
www.city.davis.ca.us/topic/bicycles.cfm gives a description of the city
seal, although no image of the city seal appears anywhere on the web site. It
apparently features a high-wheeled 'penny-farthing' bicycle.
Ron Lahav, 10 September 2004
The City Clerk's Office has informed me that the city has neither a municipal
flag nor a city seal, merely a rubber stamp with the words 'City of Davis,
California' and a space for the name and title of the individual who is
responsible for signing the document. If there is any requirement for a seal to
be used at the top of a document, they simply use an ordinary piece of paper
with the municipal logo (see below).
The logo exists only in black on a white surface such as a
document, headed paper, etc. It consists of what in the U.S. as called a
'Big-Wheel' bicycle and in the UK is known as a 'Penny-farthing', because the
small wheel looks like a farthing (an obsolete coin worth one quarter of an old
penny) and an old-fashioned penny piece. The word 'Davis' is written in a
combination of upper and lower case letters, with the capital letter 'D'
bisecting the large front wheel of the bicycle.
Ron Lahav, 22 September 2004
The website at www.delano_ca
shows a seal with a standard circular format. The outer ring is yellow
fimbriated blue. At the top are the words 'CITY OF' in black block letters using
an 'Old West' font, while at the bottom 'DELANO' is found. In the middle of the
outer ring, at each flank, are eight cotton flowers in natural colors, four
pointing upward and four downward. Surrounding the central image are what appear
to be 24 cotton bolls, oddly enough anchored in a blue field and with a green
field on top. The central image itself is in blue, yellow, and white, but it is
so busy that I am unable to distinguish any of the features.
Ron Lahav, 10 September 2004
The website at www.delmar.ca.us
displays no municipal heraldry.
Ron Lahav, 10 September 2004
The website at
www.desert-hot-springs.us shows both a logo and a seal. The logo consists of
two white Joshua trees, one large and the other small, on an olive background. A
thin white line proceeds in a rightward direction from the top of the smaller
tree for a small distance, then makes an acute 45 degree bend and descends
vertically to intersect with a white base on which the two trees stand. The
trunk of the larger tree combines to make a vertical rectangular oblong, except
that the aforementioned white base extends some distance beyond the larger tree.
To the right of the trees is a circle outlined in white, with three horizontal
lines separated from each other at irregular intervals and with the bottom arc
completely filled in in white.
The city seal is in the standard circular format. The outer
circle is in old gold fimbriated black, with the words 'CITY OF DESERT HOT
SPRINGS' in black block letters at the top of the circle and 'CALIFORNIA' at the
bottom. The central image is fimbriated white; in a blue sky an old gold sun
with a series of stylized rays occupies the middle foreground. Immediately below
the sun is a mountain range in black and gold. In the right foreground is black
palm tree bowed, while the left foreground seems to depict a local dwelling in
white and black, with a blue swimming pool in front of it. There are several
additional objects which I am unable to identify.
Ron Lahav, 19 September 2004
The website at www.dinuba.org
displays no municipal heraldry.
Ron Lahav, 19 September 2004
The website at www.ci.dixon.ca.us
shows an unusual seal in that the circular format seems to be made of tan wood
or metal. At the top, in a large stylized Old West font, is the word 'DIXON',
with the capital 'D' especially enlarged. this word outside the top of the outer
circle. At the bottom of the outer circle the word 'CALIFORNIA' appears in small
block letters as if they had been burnt into the wood or embossed into the metal. The central
image contains in the right foreground a large tree, with a grayish-brown trunk
and an extensive root system and with a crown of green leaves. Stretching into
the middle distance is a plowed field also in green, with white buildings with
black roofs in the background. Behind these buildings is a low green hill, with
a blue sky overhead.
Ron Lahav, 19 September 2004
The Dos Palos-Oro Loma Joint Unified School District
web page
reports "The city's flag consists of a royal blue background, a gold cross with
the vertical gold bar crossing the horizontal bar at 1/3, and the city's seal in
the middle. The flag is similar to the flag of Sweden (though darker blue) with
the City's seal in the middle of the cross. Dos Palos is in Merced County.
Dov Gutterman, 31 December 2002
The website at www.downeyca.org shows a
circular seal with a gray outer ring. At the top are the words 'CITY OF DOWNEY'
in black block letters, and 'CALIFORNIA' in similar letters at the bottom. To
the right is the word and date 'FOUNDED 1873' in smaller black block lettering,
while to the left is the word and date 'INCORPORATED 1916.' The central image
consists of an orange sun with stylized orange rays rising into a yellow sky,
all in the middle foreground. Beneath is a mirror of the sun and its rays in
blue on a white background. To either side of the sun are industrial buildings
in blue, with what appears to be smoke rising into the sky on the right. There
also appear to be three symbols of industry in blue beneath, one on either side
and one in the middle, but they are too indistinct for me to identify. At the
very bottom of the image is a yellow ribbon folded into three parts and with the
city motto written thereon; however the lettering is too miniscule for me to
make out the text.
Ron Lahav, 19 September 2004
The website at www.accessduarte.com
shows an extremely unusually striking logo, which consists of a vertical
rectangular oblong, divided top and bottom into two horizontal rectangular
oblongs fimbriated black. Within the top horizontal rectangle are the words
'City of' written in black in a modified uncial script, reminiscent of the days
of the Conquistadores, while the word 'Duarte' is similarly written in the
bottom horizontal rectangle. The central image depicts a stylized landscape,
with a blue river flowing between green and beige banks toward high snow-capped
mountains, also in beige and white, with a blue sky and white clouds overhead;
each feature is separated from the others by white fimbriation. Superimposed
over all this is a large lower-case letter 'd' in 16th/17th Century handwritten
script.
Ron Lahav, 19 September 2004
The website at www.ci.dublin.ca.us
borrows heavily on its more famous namesake, with shamrocks and leprechauns
scattered liberally across the pages of the web site. However, there does not
seem to have been an attempt to use any of the symbols of Dublin, Ireland, nor
even its colors in its municipal heraldry. The seal is a standard circle with
green edging outside and fimbriated black and gray within. The top of the outer
circle has 'CITY OF DUBLIN' in stylized black block letters, and 'CALIFORNIA' at
the bottom. At each flank is a Celtic design divided into two unequal parts,
with the numerals '19' at the right and ''82' at the left, between the two
portions. The central image is black on white, in the form of a Celtic cross,
with the bottom of each section coming together to form a stylized union jack
with a blank at the junction point. The top section of the cross contains a
stagecoach, the right-hand portion a church building, the bottom what appears to
be a plough, and the left-hand one a conventional three-leaved shamrock.
Ron Lahav, 19 September 2004
The seal of this city is in the standard circular format, with a blue outer
circle. The words 'CITY OF EAST PALO ALTO' are written in white block letters at
the top, while at the bottom, in smaller white block letters, is the word
'INCORPORATED' and an illegible date. The central image depicts an orange sun
with four stylized black rays rising into a sky which is yellow at the base and
orange at the top. The sun is shown rising over a range of hills, depicted in
various shades of brown. Beneath these hills flows a blue river, on the other
side of which, in the right foreground, there is a stand of trees on what
appears to be a patch of snowy ground. The trees are green, and one of them,
presumably a redwood, is much taller than the others and extends into the yellow
sky. Facing the trees, in the left foreground, there appears to be a stylized
family group, very small in relation to the trees; the group is all black and
appears to consist of two adults and two children.
Ron Lahav, 25 September 2004
The website at www.ci.el-cajon.ca
shows a very complex and vexillologically quite interesting seal. In a circular
format both concentric circles are edged in brown. In the outer circle the words
'CITY OF EL CAJON' are written in brown block letters on a white field. At each
flank are brown five-pointed stars, while at the bottom of the outer the word
'INCORPORATED' and the date 1912 are likewise written. The central image
consists of two clasped hands outlined in red fesswise, with the remainder of
the image quartered as follows: upper right, the S&S; upper left, Mexican
tricolor; lower right, a castle or on a field gules; and lower left, what
appears to be a drawing in a similar format to the clasped hands. Obviously the
first three quarters depict heraldically the history of the city, i e, although
I am unable to determine the significance of either the fourth quarter or the
clasped hands, unless both have some sort of Masonic significance.
Ron Lahav, 25 September 2004
The website at www.cityofelcentro.org
shows a very modernistic circular format with the lower right hand border of the
bottom semicircle in an irregular shape; this is because it is an outline map of
the State of California. There is no outer ring, but the upper half of the
semicircle consists of the words 'City of El Centro' in upper and lower case
letters outlined in black and filled in with gold; the lower part of the
semicircle is also edged in gold, and this edging runs fesswise across the
middle of the seal, separating the upper part, which has no images, from the
lower portion. This lower portion, as noted above, consists of a map of
California in sand color in the right foreground, the borders depicted in black
lines. To the left of the map is a blue irrigation canal running into the middle
distance, while to the left of this canal is a further stretch of sand-colored
land and an area colored a dark green in the left foreground. Within the map of
California, marking the geographic location of El Centro, is a small green
five-pointed star, from which arises a sand-colored stylized sunburst which
extends into the upper semicircle. To the right of this sunburst, in miniscule
black letters, is the word 'Incorporated' and an illegible date. Beneath the
seal, in gold letters without the black edging which appears in the name of the
city, is the municipal motto 'Shining With Opportunity.'
Ron Lahav, 25 September 2004
The City Clerk of El Centro, California, informed me that El Centro does
indeed have a flag, but it consists merely of the municipal seal in the centre
of a rectangular piece of cloth (color unstated). However, the City Council was
dissatisfied with this design, and in 2002 they approved by consensus a design
which a firm called Reliance Communications had submitted. I have asked for
additional information regarding this flag.
As for the significance of the symbolism displayed on the
municipal seal, she further informed me that the sun represents the fact that it
shines six months of the year in the area, making it a Mecca for American
'snowbirds', i e, winter tourists. The green fields represent agriculture; the
blue the Colorado and New Rivers, which provide ample water for irrigation;
while the yellow stands for the city itself and the ample space available for
future development.
Ron Lahav, 28 September 2004
The webpage at
www.ci.emeryville.ca.us shows the city logo consisting of four arrows
alternating blue and green, so arranged that their heads point to the lower and
upper right and left respectively, the whole mounted upon a black square. Where
the arrowheads intersect a thin black cross is formed.
Ron Lahav, 30 September 2004
The website at
www.ci.enmcinitas.ca.us shows this city has both a seal and a logo. The seal
is in the standard circular format, edged white on the interior and green on the
exterior. The outer circle is dark blue, with the words 'CITY OF ENCINITAS' in
white block letters at the top and 'Incorporated 1986' in white lower-case
letters at the bottom. The central image features a golden sun in the left
foreground, with a white and gold falcon in the right foreground; one wing
touches the disc of the sum while the other extends into the outer circle.
There is also a stylized reflection of sunlight on a blue sea. The lower half of
the central image features a gray horses head bridled black in the lower right
foreground, and a large unidentified pink flower in the lower left; this flower
extends past the outer circle and in fact slightly outside the ring of the seal
itself. The municipal logo consists of a range of hills in gray, with two tall
trees of different heights in black at the summit of the hill in the right
foreground. The words 'City of Encinitas' are written in two rows of black
lower-case letters of differing sizes to the left of the trees. The word
'Encinitas' is shadowed in gray.
Ron Lahav, 30 September 2004
The website at www.ci.escondido.ca.us
shows the logo consists of the name of the city over a range of stylized hills,
with a similar suggestion of clouds sketched overhead. Beneath the name of the
city is the municipal motto, 'City of Choice', written in lower-case lettering.
All colors used are shades of blue.
Ron Lahav, 30 September 2004
Continued: California Municipal Symbols, F-H