Tulsa’s original flag was adopted during a time of magical growth and economic expansion. While the flag may have lacked artistic refinement, it accurately captured the enthusiasm of the era. Tulsans were indeed eagerly looking towards a future of "unlimited opportunity".

In 1924, when this flag was adopted, we were in a period of vertiginous population growth. In the previous decade we had grown from a population of 18,000 to a population of 72,000. By the end of the 1920s our population would reach over 140,000. The 1920s were an exciting and formative decade in Tulsa's history.

The Hotel Tulsa had already been built in 1924 and its lobby was famous as a place where important oil deals were made. Other buildings that would become Tulsa landmarks, like the Mayo Hotel, the Philtower Building, Trinity Episcopal Church, and Boston Avenue Methodist Church, would would be completed by the end of the decade.

At this point in our history we had already developed a settled culture as a city. Although our culture modified itself over the course of following years, we can still trace many contemporary Tulsa traits back to this early period.

This flag was adopted three years after the Race Massacre. Our city's growth had been explosive, but many social issues within the city had been ineffectually addressed and remained unresolved.

This flag was adopted during the administration of Mayor Clarence Veale. Apparently it was approved as a courtesy to him; he was its chief advocate, and maybe its only true advocate. It seems to have been used very little following his administration. Maybe its use completely ended when he left office, records are scarce. Nobody appears to remember ever seeing it flying. In any case, we can't glean much significance from its design since only Mayor Veale seemed to understood the flag's meaning.

The approval of the flag was done as a courtesy to the Mayor, and therefore the flag is a reminder that one of Tulsa's enduring characteristics is courtesy. And, in that, all Tulsans can take pride. Thank you, Mayor Veale.

On the other hand, it is possible that Mayor Veale's flag was simply a victim of World War II. It was adopted only about a month before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that started the war. In other words, the war probably intervened before the new flags had time to start flowing off the production lines. By the time war shortages and rationing had ended and cloth was available again for purposes like making decorative flags, the whole thing may have just been forgotten. By that time, as well, Mayor Veale was out of office ...replaced by a member of the opposition party who probably had little sympathy for the flag.

This flag officially acknowledged that the era of the swashbuckling oilman, the gambler and risk taker betting his fortune on instinct and a whim, was a thing of the past.

Although there were some significant exceptions, by 1973 the oil industry had become a corporate world. The flag expresses this through its restrained corporate design. The flag is carefully considered and politically correct, down to the arrowhead that points to our Native American founding. Its sophisticated appearance would have equally worked as a logo for any big American corporation.

By 1973 we had already closed the door on the “Oil Capital” era. Some oil companies were merging, others leaving town. The last International Oil Exposition would soon be held. The economy was rapidly diversifying. We had entered a phase of transitioning away from dependency on the oil industry, a phase where arguably we remain today.

The transition was masked, however, by a strongly resurgent oil industry in the late 1970's and a new drilling boom. In tandem with the boom, The Williams Center would be completed at the end of the 70´s, and the Mid-Continent Tower at the beginning of the 80´s. In 1982, however, the oil boom spectacularly burst and Tulsa's oil industry was left weaker than before. The petroleum industry's history is one of booms and busts, but with every boom there is a belief that this one is different, this one will go on forever. So far, none of them have.

The period that begins with this flag's adoption can be viewed as the beginning of the "modern" era of Tulsa, a period that continues to today.

Adopted through a public process that represented the greater openness of modern Tulsa, our current flag is heavy with symbolism that evokes our past.

The flag of 1923 projected optimism as the city looked to the future.

Our new flag reminds us of our heritage and our yesterdays.

A hundred years separates the new flag from the one of 1924. One looked forward to history that was yet to be made. The other looks back at a history already written.

Tulsa has changed, and our flags tell the story.

The image above is the Oklahoma flag as people see it half the time. Since the word Oklahoma is printed on the flag, it is seen correctly from one side but it is backwards from the other. Half the time you will see it from the correct side, and half from the backwards side. Smart people, like you and me, can recognize the word Oklahoma even when it is printed backwards, but not everybody can. Out of state people who only see the flag from the backwards side leave Oklahoma thinking we are dyslectic.

Having our state’s name printed on the flag was not an original feature. It was added in 1941. It is unclear whether this was done for the benefit of people in other states, or to help Oklahomans themselves to identify their state flag.

By the time Tulsa adopted its first flag, Oklahoma had already had two. The first one was the flag with a suspicious excess of the color red in the design (click here for our page on Oklahoma political curiosities) and a second one (with only the tiniest touch of red) that is similar to today’s flag, but without the name of the state printed on it. During this same period the United States flag changed also …it added a new star for Oklahoma, one for New Mexico, and one for Arizona. That made a total of forty-eight stars, and the flag stayed at that number for over fifty years.

The American Revolutionary war was fought a thousand miles from Tulsa, and it didn’t pertain to us anyway. At that time we were a possession of Spain, and the flag of the Spanish Empire (above) flew over the land that became Tulsa.

We were not riled up against the Spanish like the American colonists were about the British. There is no evidence of unhappiness with Spanish rule around here ...in fact, there is no evidence that anyone around here was even aware that we were under Spanish rule. News in those days traveled slowly.

We had been a French possession before the Spaniards obtained us, then the French got us back again from the Spanish just a few years later. The French held onto us for a short time, and then they flipped the property and sold it to the Americans in the Louisiana Purchase, pocketing a handsome profit.

We were a French possession long enough, before and after the Spaniards, for Oklahoma to have a few place names as heritage from our French days. The Verdigris River is one example. The Sans Bois Mountains (“treeless mountains” in French, a low blow of a name) is another.

You might imagine that LeFlore County’s name was also something the French left behind, but you would be wrong. It was named after a Choctaw gentlemen, a Mr. LeFlore. Poteau, the county seat of LeFlore County, on the other hand, is a French word. "Poteau" means "post" in French, and the place was originally a French trading post. Although I don't think they speak much French there these days, you are welcome to go there and try speaking it to the locals. Let me know how it works out for you.

If the French had kept our part of North America instead of selling it to the Americans things would be different today. New Orleans would be our national capital instead of Washington DC. We would drink more wine and eat more cheese, and we would avoid commercially processed food. School children would not have to learn complicated rules of English grammar. And there would have been no Trail of Tears and Andrew Jackson would never have been our president.