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Cayuga County, New York (U.S.)

image by Jens Pattke, 13 July 2010

Description of the flag
County Seal

- indicates flag is known.
- indicates it is reported that there is no known flag.

Municipal flags in Cayuga County:

See also:

Description of the Flag

The flag of the Cayuga County, New York, has a white (grayish for silver) background with the county seal in the center. Above the seal "CAYUGA COUNTY" and below "1799", both in dark blue letters. Photo of the flag thanks to Suzanne Gauthier, Planning Administrative Assistant.

About the county:
"Cayuga County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. It was named for one of the tribes of Indians in the Iroquois Confederation. Its county seat is Auburn. It has 81,963 inhabitants." - from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cayuga_County,_New_York.

Official website: www.co.cayuga.ny.us.
Valentin Poposki, 11 May 2010

On June 10th, I received a reply from the Cayuga County Historian's Office, with regards to several of the details concerning the flag of Cayuga County, New York. Nancy provided me with a newspaper article dated September 14th, 1980. The transcription of the newspaper article is as follows:

Headline: "County gets its own flag"
Byline: "By Walter W. Rewald"
Cayuga County got its very first flag last week. As a matter of fact, the county got seven flags and a banner from the Syracuse manufacturer. The flag has a white background with blue lettering spelling out Cayuga County surrounding the blue-and-red county seal. The seal, designed many years ago by Prof. Walter K. Long, shows a log cabin, a threshing flail and a book. The new flag was displayed at Tuesday's session of the county Legislature to the left of the chairman, opposite the American flag. Two of the flags will be sent to the USS Cayuga, a Navy tender named after this county and stationed on the west coast. One flag is destined for the offices of the Off Track Betting Corp. in Canandaigua, and the remaining three will be given to the three court chambers, including supreme, county, and surrogate courts.

The horizontal banner can be displayed wherever county officials gather, at meetings and conventions. This is the first flag the county ever got, according to county officials. The Council of the Arts had held a design competition last year and got quite a few colorful entries, but none of those met with county approval.

The day the county got its flag it also got its plaque back. The bronze plaque honoring Harriet Tubman had been taken down for a cleaning. It was put up again to the west of the courthouse door, shiny and like new, on Tuesday. The plaque was donated by citizens in 1914 to honor the former slave who led blacks [sic] to freedom via her underground railroad. While it was down a copy was made by a Virginia foundry to be placed at the newly opened Harriet Tubman library on South Street.

A picture (dated September 16th, 1980) in a subsequent article shows the new flag the same as the flag currently posted above, but with "1799 - 1980" instead of simply "1799" at the bottom of the flag. It is unknown why " - 1980" was removed, though this was likely because it was undesirable to display years akin to ones carved into gravestones, inferring the "birth" and "death" of a county. It is also unknown when the " - 1980" was removed, but it was likely in 1981, due to the speculation I've provided in the previous sentence.

Paul Bassinson, 23 June 2014

Seal

located by Paul Bassinson, 6 December 2016
Image obtained from bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com.