State Flag of Alabama TB02

Please drop this item in rural OR Premium Member Only caches.  Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event.  Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and prevents tangling with other items.  Otherwise, take the travel bug anywhere you wish.  No permission is needed to leave the U.S.

Photos in the travel bug logs are appreciated.  I will be re-post them here, where they can be seen by other cachers.

The current Flag of the State of Alabama (the second in the state's history) was adopted by the Alabama state legislature on February 16, 1895.  According to that legislation, the flag of the State of Alabama shall be a crimson cross of St. Andrew on a field of white.  The bars forming the cross shall be not less than six inches broad, and must extend diagonally across the flag from side to side. The cross of St. Andrew referred to in the law is a diagonal cross, known in vexillology as a saltire.  Because the bars must be at least six inches wide, small representations of the Alabama flag do not meet the legal definition.

It is sometimes believed that the crimson saltire of the current Flag of Alabama was designed to resemble the blue saltire of the Confederate Battle Flag.  Many battle flags were square and the flag of Alabama is sometimes also depicted as square.  The legislation that created the state flag did not specify if the flag was to be square or rectangular, however.   In 1987, the office of Alabama Attorney General issued an opinion in which the Battle Flag derivation is repeated, but concluded that the proper shape is rectangular, as it had been depicted numerous times in official publications and reproductions.