Ohio has adopted an official salute to the flag and the official folding procedure gives it 17 folds.
The official interpretation of the flag as encoded in state statute follows:
“The flag of the state shall be burgee-shaped. It shall have three red and two white horizontal stripes that represent the roads and waterways of the state. The union of the flag shall be seventeen five-pointed stars, white in a blue triangular field that represents the state’s hills and valleys, the base of which shall be the staff end or vertical edge of the flag, and the apex of which shall be the center of the middle red stripe. The stars shall be grouped around a red disc superimposed upon a white circular “O.” The thirteen stars grouped around the “O” represent the original states of the United States and the four stars added to the peak of the triangle symbolize that Ohio was the seventeenth state admitted to the union. The “O” represents the “O” in “Ohio” and suggests the state’s nickname, the buckeye state. The proportional dimensions of the flag and of its various parts shall be according to the official design on file in the office of the secretary of state.”
According to vexillologist Whitney Smith, the uniquely shaped Ohio flag may be loosely based upon cavalry flags of the Civil War and Spanish–American War. The flag has been officially defined as a “burgee” since 2002, even though burgees are typically used as maritime flags. Its shape, lack of text, and mirror symmetry allow it to be flown or hung in various orientations without affecting legibility. On account of the flag’s uncommon shape, foreign manufacturers have occasionally set the entire design against a white, rectangular field.
Nickname for Ohio:
Ohio’s nickname is “The Buckeye State” partially because many buckeye trees once covered Ohio’s hills and plains.
The name “buckeye” stems from Native Americans, who called the nut “hetuck,” which means “buck eye” because the markings on the nut resemble the eye of a deer. But the national association between Ohio and the buckeye was born during William Henry Harrison‘s 1840 presidential campaign (Harrison was a Virginia-born Ohioan and military hero). Harrison’s opponents claimed he was “better suited to sit in a log cabin and drink hard cider.” Harrison’s supporters turned this intended criticism into a promotion, dubbing him “the log cabin candidate.” They fashioned Harrison’s campaign emblem as a log cabin made of buckeye timbers with a long string of buckeyes decorating the walls. Harrison’s backers also walked with buckeye canes and rolled whisky barrels in parades.
The campaign gimmick was successful and Harrison (“Old Tippecanoe”) beat President Martin Van Buren‘s bid for re-election. Ohio has since been known as “the buckeye state.” The buckeye is also Ohio’s official state tree.
Next up is the 18th state to join the United States: Louisiana