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Terre Haute, Indiana (U.S.)

Vigo County

image located by Dave Fowler, 10 May 2024

Description of the flag
Seal
Previous flag

See also:

Description of the flag

New city flag announced:
https://www.wthitv.com/news/one-vote-made-the-difference

One vote made the difference": Official Terre Haute flag design announced
By: Rachel Law May 9, 2024 Updated May 9, 2024
TERRE HAUTE, Ind.(WTHI) - Very soon, a new flag will be flying all around town. It'll be Terre Haute's very own official flag.

It was a close contest, beating the runner-up by only one vote. Voters in Terre Haute chose a design from local graphic designer Kristin Toney.
While it may just seem like a flag to some, many locals say it is a symbol of pride for the community.

Toney found out Thursday morning that she had won.

After checking the voting page religiously, she took a break. That's right when the results were finalized and she had won by one vote. When she found out, her excitement was through the roof.
She says it's a proud moment for her to know she has created something that will go down in history.

Toney said, "A friend of mine texted me and said 'Hey you did it.' and I was like 'I did what?' and it took me like thirty seconds for it to click like 'Oh, oh wait a minute.' so I was shaken a little. I instantly turned to a co-worker and I was like, 'I did it.'"
Member of the flag design committee, Ethan Page, says seeing the final design is a really big deal for him. Page had the idea back in December to find a way to create a city flag., but knew he couldn't be the only one with this idea.
formed a committee and received lots of public feedback along the way. His goal was to make this a community-oriented effort.

Page said, "There were lots of people in our community that wanted this and needed this and were passionate about it and to see that finally come out to the finished product is cool. It was a lot more intensive than I honestly predicted it to be."
Toney's design is all about Terre Haute's history.

She incorporated a Sycamore leaf, nineteen stars for Indiana being the nineteenth state, the crossroads in town, and the colors of the Indiana state flag.

To her, the design was all about finding things that describe Terre Haute.

After presenting the design to the city council on June 6th, the committee is hopeful they will be able to purchase flags to decorate the city with.

Dave Fowler, 10 May 2024

Seal

Previous flag

image by Daniel Rentería, 11 June 2024
based on image of the flag in the Terre Haute Tribune of May 13, 1976 (and a drawing of the flag from the article)

Official description for the older flag:

Sec. 1-13 City Flag.

a. The City of Terre Haute desires to adopt a flag in honor of the National Bicentennial celebration and to be displayed at the Banks of the Wabash Festival.

b. A flag contest was held immediately prior to the opening of the first Banks of the Wabash Festival in which entries were submitted and judged and the winner of said contest was Ronald Goetz of Terre Haute.

c. The City of Terre Haute desires to adopt the flag submitted by Ronald Goetz as the official flag of the City of Terre Haute a copy of which is marked “Exhibit A” and is on file in the office of the City Clerk and available for public inspection during regular business hours.

d. The official flag is illustrated by a blue stripe in the middle representing the Wabash River and a sycamore leaf, orange and yellow in color, representing the sycamore trees located along the Wabash and also contains the symbol of a torch surrounded by stars as depicted in the official flag of the State of Indiana said flag having a white background.

e. The City of Terre Haute, wishes to commend and express its gratitude to Ronald Goetz for the design of said flag.

f. The Common Council of the City of Terre Haute, Indiana adopts the above described flag as the official flag for the City of Terre Haute. (Res. No. 22, 1976, 5-13-76)

Terre Haute adopted the flag for a contest in honor of the U.S. National Bicentennial celebration, which was in 1976. The flag contains a blue stripe in the middle on a white background to represent the Wabash River, an orange and yellow sycamore leaf, and the foreground of Indiana's flag (torch and 19 stars). The flag was created by city resident Ronald Goetz and it was first displayed at the Banks of the Wabash Festival.
Ethan Dubrow, 11 June 2024

It appears the flag adopted as official in 1976 was never manufactured as a flag; only the flag with the city's seal was, which is quite unfortunate.
Daniel Rentería, 11 June 2024

Earlier flag

image by Eugene Ipavec, 9 May 2009

Darrel Zeck, Director of Public Affairs, City of Terre Haute, Indiana, sent me the following description of the flag: "The flag is white, with the seal centered in the flag. On a 3' x 5' flag, the seal is 30" in diameter" (5/6 height). Attached were also photo of the flag and b/w version of the city seal.
Valentin Poposki, 8 May 2009

Official description of the seal:

Under the provisions of General Ordinance No. 1, 1899 the Terre Haute Common Council adopted a design for a City Seal, which provided for a City Seal, two inches in diameter, carrying within the circle of the Seal a cut or representation of Fort Harrison, underneath it the inscription, “Fort Harrison, 1812”, which for some unexplained reason never was prepared or actually used, and which, because of its historical significance, should be adopted as a design for a City Seal for the City of Terre Haute.
FUN FACT: Did you know that Terre Haute has a City Song? It's "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away", which is.... just Indiana's song. No lyric changes or anything, it's literally just Indiana's state anthem. Gosh, what a bummer!

https://www.terrehaute.in.gov/departments/city-legal-department/terre-haute-city-code/whole-code-with-updates-5-13-2024.pdf

Ethan Dubrow, 11 June 2024