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Bandera County, Texas (U.S.)

by Mason Kaye

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The field of Bandera County's flag is yellow, a reminder of the county's caliche hills. The main element of the flag, a county map, depicted in green representative of agricultural wealth, is overlaid by a yellow star. In the southeast corner of the map, Lake Medina is included in blue. The year of organization, 1856, and the inscriptions "Bandera County" and "The Star in the Texas Hills" appear in red, a reference to the flag flown at the Bandera Pass. The flag, designed by County Judge Rein Vanderzee, was adopted on 13 September 1982.
Mason Kaye, 17 November 2003

From http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/txflags/bandera.html

"It would seem fitting that Bandera County have a flag, as "bandera" is the Spanish word for flag. The county takes its name from the Bandera Mountains and the Bandera Pass, which themselves are reputedly named for a flag left at the pass in the mid-eighteenth century by Spanish settlers. Either a warning to local Indians to come no closer, or the symbol of a territorial treaty with those same Indians, the flag of the Bandera Pass is said to have marked the boundary between Spanish and Indian lands. The flag is said to have been red.
The field of Bandera County's flag is yellow, a reminder of the county's caliche hills. The main element of the flag, a county map, depicted in green representative of agricultural wealth, is overlaid by a yellow star. In the southeast corner of the map, Lake Medina is included in blue. The year of organization, 1856, and the inscriptions "Bandera County" and "The Star in the Texas Hills" appear in red, a reference to the flag flown at the Bandera Pass.

located by Mason Kaye, 17 November 2003

The Handbook of Texas Online http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/ tells us that Bandera County shares its name with the town of Bandera (the county seat) and nearby Bandera Pass. Then, (at http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/BB/hcb2.html)...

The first Europeans to set foot in what is now Bandera County were the Spanish, who probably explored the region in the early eighteenth century. Bandera is Spanish for "flag," and there are a number of colorful accounts as to how the county was named. One has it that a Spanish general named Bandera led a punitive expedition in the area against the Apaches after the Indians raided San Antonio de Béxar. Another relates that after pursuing the Indians to Bandera Pass[qv] the Spanish left a flag or flags to warn them against future raids. And a third legend claims that in 1752 (or 1732) a council was held between Spanish and Indian leaders, during which the Spanish pledged never to go north of the pass if the Indians agreed to cease their raids in the south, and a red flag was placed on the pass as a symbol of the treaty.

Though it is not clear if one or any of these accounts is true, the name w