The present flag, adopted in 1911, is the third official flag of the state of Michigan. The first state flag featured Michigan’s first governor, Stevens Thomson Mason, on one side and the Michigan coat of arms on the other. Mason was replaced by the United States coat of arms in the second version in 1865. The present flag consists of the coat of arms on a field of blue as required by Michigan law. The coat of arms features a bald eagle holding an olive branch and arrows on top of a shield, along with a man standing on a grassy peninsula waving with one hand while holding a rifle in the other. The shield is supported by an elk and a moose. Three state mottos encircle the coat of arms, translated from Latin to mean “From many, oneâ€; “I will defendâ€; and “If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you.†The Michigan state flag, with its coat of arms, represents these mottos pictorially.
