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Sutter County, California (U.S.)

Image located by Judge Muscat, 6 March 2026

Description of the flag

- indicates flag is known.
- indicates it is reported that there is no known flag.

Municipal flags in Sutter County:

Yuba City

See also:

Counties of California
Municipal flags of California (index page)
California
United States of America

Report of a flag

Quoting a brief published in "Appeal Democrat", 21 October 2011:

"A new flag for Sutter County will fly over the Hall of Records on Wednesday after a ceremony marking the volunteer effort by a pair of 4-H members. The flag, which features the county seal, Sutter Buttes and waterfowl flying overhead, will be raised at the hall's flagpole at 1 p.m. The hall is at 466 Second St., Yuba City. Franklin Tarke and Francisco Ruiz, of Sutter Buttes 4-H, helped create the flag design, with online votes making the final decision."
www.appeal-democrat.com/news/marysville-110830-sutter-county.html

On 22 April 2011, the County's official website call for votes for a Cutter County flag design, as follows:
"Two members of Sutter Buttes 4-H have won permission from the Sutter County Board of Supervisors to finalize designs for an official Sutter County flag. Members of the public are being invited to participate in the process of creating a Sutter County flag by voting on which of three designs they prefer. Franklin Tarke and Francisco Ruiz are Sutter County delegates to the 4-H California Citizenship Conference for high school 4-Hers at the state Capitol in June. The event immerses 4-Hers in the history and political processes of California. For a traditional procession, attendees are asked to bring a "County flag." Because Sutter County has no official flag, however, attendees from Sutter County in the past have either had no flag for the procession or have made their own. Attendees are also required to perform a citizenship project in the county, so Mr. Tarke and Mr. Ruiz decided to make their project the creation of an official county flag. To do that, they are learning to engage their local government. On April 11, they presented several design options to the Sutter County Agriculture, Public Protection and General Government Committee, and secured the Committee's enthusiastic support for the project. On Tuesday, April 19, the two Sutter High School students made a presentation to the five-member Board of Supervisors, and again won enthusiastic support. Supervisors directed that three of the possible flag designs presented by the youth be placed on the County's website and that residents be allowed to vote on the design. On Tuesday, May 3, the Board of Supervisors will vote on the final design.
[...]
Each of the three designs employs the official County seal and includes the year that Sutter County was created, 1850. (Sutter County was one of the original 27 counties of California). Options A and C both utilize an outline of the Sutter Buttes borrowed from the Sutter County Historical Society. Option B utilizes an outline of the County boundaries with a star denoting the location of Yuba City, the County seat.
[...]"
www.co.sutter.ca.us/news/?year=2011&month=4

The three proposed designs are shown on a PDF file available on the County's official website.
Design "A" is green with an orange horizontal stripe shifted to the bottom, charged with "est. 18 / 50" in black, flanking the County's seal, which overlaps the green field on both sides of the orange stripe. At the bottom of the flag is placed the black silhouette of the Sutter Buttes hills, with two black birds flying over their right part, and a range of white vegetation in the foreground.

Design "B" is white with two green horizontal stripes at the top and the bottom of the flag, the bottom stripes being charged with "est. 1850" in black. The white stripe is charged with a white map of Sutter County outlined in black, the location of the County's seat being shown by a light green (or yellow?) star, and the County's seal.

Design "C" differs from design "A" only by the lack of the vegetation range at the flag's bottom.
www.co.sutter.ca.us/pdf/news/flagoptions.pdf
The PDF document summarizes an official recommendation dated 3 May 2011.
www.co.sutter.ca.us/apps/agendas/file.aspx?item=5182
The wording of the brief seems to indicate that the winning design was either design "A" or design "C".

Ivan Sache, 24 October 2011

Just as an explanation of part of the flag, the Sutter Buttes are actually the remnants of an ancient volcano which sit in the center of the Sacramento Valley between the Sierra Nevada mountains and the coast range. They are classified by some geology groups as the world's smallest mountain range and are being made into a state park.
Michael P. Smuda, 24 October 2011

A TV report (http://www.fox40.com/news/headlines/ktxl-high-school-sophomores-design-sutter-county-flag-20111026,0,5486179.story, no longer active) clearly indicated that design "A" was eventually adopted, manufactured, and hoisted.
Ivan Sache, 29 October 2011

From a post by "County of Sutter, CA" in the 530 Life Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1114469271918205/posts/5099815950050164/

Eleven years ago, Sutter High School students Francisco Ruiz and Franklin Tarke designed the first official County Flag in our County's history. A copy of that flag hangs in the gym at Sutter High School, where the Sutter County Board of Supervisors will be conducting a regular board meeting in special session at 11 a.m. Tuesday, January 25. Staff and members of the public are asked to park in the rear parking lot and enter the gym through the west doors. There is no need to check in at the school office.
Judge Muscat, 6 March 2026

Seal

image located by Paul Bassinson, 27 December 2017

Image source: i.pinimg.com
Paul Bassinson, 27 December 2017