Flag Challenge 136 (erroneously 137) - Voting Thread

[Petike]

Richard IV's challenge for round 136 was...

CHALLENGE 136: A STATE THAT SURVIVED
Inspired by a book I read recently, Lost States: True Stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania and Other States That Never Made It by Michael J. Trinklein. But perhaps some States did make it and are today part of the USA. The challenge is to select one of the following four States and create a flag for it, adding a bit of its history.

Absaroka

Chippewa

Jefferson

Texlahoma

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The entries:

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[FONT=&quot]GARNER – The Fastest State in the Union [/FONT][FONT=&quot](Texlahoma)[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]In the early part of the 20th century parts of the then states of Oklahoma and Texas felt left out on the opportunity of having decent accessible roads for motoring. If not due to the diligent work of many, especially then Vice-President John Nance Garner, the “Fastest State in the Union” would not exist today. First proposed as Texlahoma, it would really take the decision of Henry Ford to build an automobile plant in Amarillo. Many questioned his choice knowing about his pacifism and his opposition to entering into World War 2, but official documents and subsequent biographers points to a need by the US Government for the development of small scale motorized military vehicles. In 1941, Ford had a purpose built plant created for the war effort after the US entered the war. Ford himself broke ground on the Lubbock facility in the spring of 1941, and the first B-24 came off the line in September 1942.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Prior to the US entering the war, the momentum for statehood was strong. With the US entering the war, Congress had designated a large area of the future Texlahoma as Special Purpose territory with many research and development facilities, as well as Army training bases being built. The Special Purpose area continued into the late 1950’s. While Rocket research in the state had occurred as far back as 1946, it was not until July 22, 1958, when President Eisenhower of the USA, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan of the UK, and Prime Minister Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury of France signed the North Atlantic Space Act, establishing NASA. One of the first rocket engine facilities for the Apollo program was started in Lubbock.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]After the death of former VP John Nance Garner a state-wide petition was created to rename the state Garner after the man that most felt was the father of the state. When the Act was finally voted on by the populace, the votes favored a name change by 88% to that of Garner.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The state flag is a beige field cut into five sections by a cross and circle representing a road system. The center circle depicts a prickly pear cactus growing in the desert and a Ford Model-T in the background. The Blue Star represents the aerospace industry that is so prominent in the state. The Name of the state, Garner, is written in the desert sand.[/FONT]

Flag for the state of Chippewa.

When the civil war ended on May 9, 1865, the Lincoln administration had made plans to reform some of the states as a better way of controlling the populace and with managing the affairs of the vast country. With the assassination of Lincoln most of these plans and reforms didn't go through. But oddly enough the plan to reform North and South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas had passed and as a result the state of Chippewa was created out of the remnants of North Dakota. The flag chosen was a modified version of the flag that the Ojibwa or Chippewa natives used to identify themselves. Being one of the top fiver biggest groups of native Americans they had a reasonable identity, and due to the chaos the the United States had just experienced, it decided to represent the natives with given them a state named after them. Most of the world was in shock. Especially considering Lincolns successor, Andrew Johnson wasn't know for being sympathetic to anyone not white. All Johnson had to say was. "It was the will of Mr.Lincoln, a reasonable and noble one at that."

Many people today wonder what it would be like of the reforms didn't go through, or whether or not Johnson ever cared for the natives or not. We may never know.

The state of Texlahoma was created in 1937 when rural inhabitants of Oklahoma and Texas, fed up with their demands for better roads falling on deaf hear in their state capitals, declared the founding of a new state following a referendum.

In the following decades, the state never really developed a sense of self beyond "having the best highways" leading to the adoption of the current flag.

TEXLAHOMA
When Texas seceded from the Union in 1861, a northern part of the Lone Star State rebelled and declared itself “North Texas”. The Texan forces soon regained control over the area, although a guerrilla style response caused the Texans to take extremely harsh measures against not only the fighters but also the civilian population.
Washington promptly recognised North Texas as an appellant member of the Union and military aid built up from a trickle of armaments to military incursions.
Following the Civil War, North Texas was allocated a part of Oklahoma Territory and became Texlahoma, admitted to the Union in 1869.
The flag of North Texas became the flag of Texlahoma. Based upon the Texan flag, with a few changes and the addition of a ‘great star’ device comprising 33 stars, directly copied from version of the US flag at the time of Texas’s secession.

Flag for the state of JEFFERSON which split from California at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. Blue for the sea, green for the land and good old Thomas in the centre.

The latest voting thread for the latest round has arrived ! Feel free to vote and let the best design win.