Close your eyes and picture the Wyoming state flag.
You can probably visualize the white bison on a field of dark blue with the state seal, inside borders of red and white.
What color is the seal and where, exactly, does it sit on the bison?
And the bison — what does its tail look like? Is it long with a puff of fur on the end or is it short and narrow?
Is the bison’s head more of a long shape or round?
You may think you know exactly what the Wyoming state flag looks like, so this may come as a surprise.
There’s actually no “official” state flag with a specific bison and details about how the seal is placed.
The only real guidance on the state flag is the information that’s found in Wyoming State Statutes, according to Sara Davis, archivist with the Wyoming State Archives in Cheyenne.
While that statute is very specific about the sizing and colors of various elements on the flag, there isn’t much guidance about what the bison (or the buffalo, as it's referred to in the statute) should actually look like.
“Otherwise, interpretations of this statute/design are generally acceptable,” Davis said.
Left, the designer of the Wyoming State Flag, Verna Keays Keys, maintained the bison on the flag should face away from the pole. But prominent sufferagist, UW professor and head of the DAR at the time, Grace Raymond Hebard, right, insisted it face the pole, which became the preferred way to make the flag. (Wyoming State Archives; American Heritage Center Archives) 
The two postcards Grace Raymond Hebard used to show Verna Keyes the direction Hebard wanted the bison to face, circa 1917. (American Heritage Center Archives) 
In this photo taken around 1960, Verna Keays Keyes holds the Wyoming state flag she desinged more than four decades earlier. (Wyoming State Archives) 
By the 1940s, it had become standard for the bison on the Wyoming state flag to face the pole. Above, U.S. Sen. Joseph O'Mahoney, left, and two staffers with the flag. Above the senator's head is a portrait of former Gov. John Kendrick, who signed the flag design into state law in 1917. (Wyoming State Archives) 
Rebecca Keays with her grandmother's original flag design. (Courtesy Rebecca Keays) 
This image of the Wyoming flag on the Secretary of State's Office website shows a bison with a longer head and a long beard not seen on other flags.
Differences By Maker
It’s very likely that the state flag you’re flying in front of your house could look rather different from your neighbor’s if they were made by different companies.
Shop for a flag online and you’ll quickly start to spot some of the differences.
The best-selling Wyoming flag on Amazon, manufactured by Anley, features a thin-tailed bison with a mostly-white state seal on its ribs.
Meanwhile, the next-best-selling flag, manufactured by Annin Flagmakers, features a bison with a fluff of fur on the end of its tail and a state seal that’s mostly blue.
That best-selling flag made by Anley runs afoul of one of the specifications from state statutes: “On the ribs of the buffalo shall be the great seal of the state of Wyoming in blue.”
Even images of the flag on various Wyoming state websites don’t seem to conform to the statute, though those images may not actually exist in flag form.
The bison on the flag on the Secretary of State’s website, for example, has a very unusually long and misplaced beard.
Original Flag Design
All of these variations of the flag look similar to the one that Verna Keays Keys originally designed in 1916.
As her granddaughter Rebecca Keays previously told Cowboy State Daily, the state flag legislation never specified which outline of a bison to use, nor which way it should face.
Further complicating matters is that there isn’t really any formal “ownership” of the flag.
In 2019, in response to some inquiries about the flag, the Secretary of State’s Office told the Wyoming State Archives that a flag cannot be trademarked and no state agency is formally tasked with being a “keeper” of the flag.
As a result of there being no “official” state flag, that explains the differences you’ll see when looking at various Wyoming flags.
You can buy a version that most fits your fancy (or budget), but if you want a flag that’s the closest approximation of the original Keays design, here are three elements to look for in the bison:
• A short tail with a small puff of fur.
• A long head with a distinctive short beard.
• A defined hump on its back.
As to which way the bison should be facing, Keays has been photographed holding flags with the bison facing either way.
