GAGeorgia State Symbols

Georgia is the Peach State, and the peach is not just a nickname: the legislature made it the official state fruit in 1995, the same stretch of years it named the peanut the state crop and the Vidalia sweet onion the state vegetable. Georgia's food symbols are unusually specific because the crops are unusually specific. The symbol Georgians fought over hardest, though, was the flag, which changed three times between 2001 and 2003.

Official state symbols

What is on the Georgia state flag

The current flag was adopted in 2003 and confirmed by a statewide referendum in March 2004. It has three horizontal bars, red over white over red, and a blue canton in the upper hoist. Inside the canton, in gold, is the state coat of arms, encircled by thirteen white stars for Georgia and the twelve other original colonies, with the words IN GOD WE TRUST beneath the arch. The bar-and-canton layout is drawn from the first national flag of the Confederacy, which is part of why the 2003 design was itself argued over. What it dropped was the Confederate battle emblem that had filled two thirds of the flag adopted in 1956. The stopgap design used from 2001 to 2003, a blue field with a row of small historical flags across it, is widely remembered as one of the worst-rated flags ever surveyed.

Inside the Georgia state seal

The seal dates to 1799 and puts civics on the front. An arch rests on three pillars, one for each branch of government, with a banner reading CONSTITUTION wrapped around the arch. A soldier with a drawn sword stands beside them, in place to defend the constitution, and the words Wisdom, Justice, Moderation are spread one to a pillar, which is where the state motto comes from. The reverse shows the export economy: a ship under full sail on a river, a small boat carrying cotton and tobacco, and a man plowing a field with sheep nearby. The date on the seal was changed from 1799 to 1776 in 1914.

Symbols that surprise people

• Grits is the official state prepared food, designated in 2002.
• The Vidalia sweet onion, state vegetable since 1990, can only be sold under that name if it was grown inside a production area defined by Georgia law, roughly 20 counties around Vidalia.
• The state mineral, staurolite, grows in natural cross shapes. The crystals are collected in the north Georgia mountains and sold as fairy crosses.
• The Springer Opera House in Columbus, built in 1871, was named the official state theatre in 1971.
• "Georgia on My Mind" became the state song in 1979 after Ray Charles performed it for the General Assembly.
• The state fossil is a shark tooth, adopted in 1976, dug from the coastal plain that was ocean floor for much of the state's geologic history.

Neighboring states' symbols

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