Guiding by the North Star, rooted like the Pine.

The story of Maine’s Pine Tree Flag is more than a line in design history — it’s a mirror held up to a state’s soul. It traces how a humble green pine and a northern star came to embody independence, resilience, and a fierce love of home. From 1901 to 1909, this flag flew proudly above the Pine Tree State, its simple silhouette cutting through the wind like an idea too bold to fade.

Approved by the Maine Legislature in 1901, it stood apart from the cluttered seals that dominated U.S. state flags of the time. No Latin mottoes, no crests or animals — just a pine and a star on a buff canvas. It was radical in its simplicity, elegant in its honesty, and instantly recognizable. For early Mainers, the flag wasn’t decoration — it was declaration.

Yet in 1909, quietly and without fanfare, the legislature replaced it with a blue banner bearing the state coat of arms. The move was administrative, even mundane — but its cultural effect was enormous. Maine’s distinctive emblem was folded away, replaced by a design nearly identical to dozens of others. The pine retreated to old photographs, attic boxes, and the memories of families who once stitched it by hand.

For decades, the original flag was forgotten — not outlawed, not forbidden, simply buried under sameness. But like the tree it depicts, the idea never died. By the 1970s, historians had rediscovered references in legislative archives. By the 2010s, the revival was unmistakable: artists, makers, and everyday Mainers started to fly the pine again. It appeared on storefronts, mugs, classrooms, and even tattoos. What had been lost was now blooming again — not as nostalgia, but as renewal.

“Every generation redefines what it means to be from Maine. The Pine Tree Flag is our visual language — it speaks the truth of endurance.”
— Civic Design Journal, 2024

Source: Maine Secretary of State — certified 2024 election data.