Last modified: 2009-05-24 by rick wyatt
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![[possible flag of Hennepin County, Minnesota]](../images/u/us-mnroc.gif)
image by Nathan Lamm, 31 December 2007See also:
In 1980 a competition was held to design a flag for the city of Rochester. Nearly 200 flag proposal entries were submitted to the
citizen flag selection committee. The design submitted by Laurie A. Muir, a fine arts student at the Minneapolis College of Art
and Design, was selected for the official city flag by the Rochester City Council at a council meeting on June 16, 1980. Muir
designed the flag with a white circle on a royal blue background, as a historical reference to the original Flag of Minnesota,
which actually has a medium blue background. To represent the city's main industry, the flag design includes a city landscape in
the background showing the main building of the Mayo Clinic, along with the Plummer Building, a U.S. National Historic Landmark.
Another major employer, IBM is represented by a computer-styled font for the lettering. In the foreground is a blue lake representing
Rochester's Silver Lake, an artificial lake in Rochester created by a dam and used to cool the electrical generating power plant.
Because the power plant produces enough heat to keep the lake from freezing in the winter, Canada geese stay in Rochester year round.
This is represented by the three Canada geese flying over the city on the flag. The first official flag was presented to its designer
in a ceremony held at the Rochester Public Library on August 19, 1980. Making the presentation was City Council President Dick Postier
and Mayor Chuck Hazama. The center image from the flag is currently used as a logo in various renditions by city departments.
Laurie Muir, 22 December 2007
Colors:
1. Royal blue to match the state flag of Minnesota,
2. white circle to match the state flag (the white circle is an historical reference to the original Minnesota flag which was white on the obverse-blue reverse).
3. Light brown to match the old clinic building.
4. Light blue for the sky
5. Black trim and outline and letters
The emblem has a thin light brown circle, a wide white circle inside, a thin brown circle inside, a landscape inside: pale blue sky, buildings, lake and birds overhead. Blue field. The center emblem looks like a "seal", but it is not. The city has a different official seal. However, because it looks like a seal, some city departments have adopted it as a seal & it is used on city police cars.
Of course, the flag is rare, only the official city buildings and parks use it.
Lee Herold, 21 June 1997
The color specifications are: royal blue 286C, UN blue 279C, Black, Silver
gray 427C, Amber Tan 722C, and white.
Lee Herold, 27 December 1997
On 26 Dec 2007 I checked with the city administration and they verified that
the city seal is the same as used since
approx 1858 when the city was incorporated, the globe laid flat. It is used for
all official documents. The center image from the flag is used as a logo in
various renditions, not as an official seal. So there is a flag, a seal, and a
logo for the city.
Lee
Herold, 27 December 2007
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