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California Municipal Symbols, D, E

Last modified: 2005-12-17 by rick wyatt
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Municipalities listed below have been researched for municipal flags, mainly by searching their websites. Commonly U.S. cities use the city seal on a plain field as the city flag, so we have included information about the city seal where no other flag is known.


See also:


Daly City

It seems that the Daly City flag is the city logo on blue fringed in gold as seen behind the city council at http://www.ci.daly-city.ca.us/about/images/council_2002.jpg (no longer available).
Dov Gutterman, 19 October 2002

The website at www.ci.daly_city.ca.us displays only a very small image of the city seal on all pages of the city web site. It is circular in format, with a pale buff outer ring. At the top of this outer ring in black block capitals are the words 'DALY CITY', while at the bottom written in the same fashion is the word 'CALIFORNIA'. At the middle of the outer ring, at each flank, are two small black dots. Because of the very small size of the image as a whole, it is extremely difficult to make out the central image, although it appears to be some sort of archway with three lines of text underneath.
Ron Lahav, 10 September 2004


Dana Point

The website at www.danapoint.org shows a very complex circular seal. It is edged by a gold and dark blue cable-laid rope, which sets the nautical theme of the seal. The outer circle is blue, with the words 'DANA POINT' and 'CALIFORNIA' in light blue block letters and a small light blue spot separating the name of the city from that of the state; these appear at the top of the outer circle, with the date '1989' similarly at the bottom. The outer circle is fimbriated in both light and dark blue. The central image features a sailor naked to the waist outlined in dark blue in the right foreground. He is standing on what appears to be a dark gray quayside, with light blue landscape to the left. In the center is the Pacific Ocean in a medium blue, while in the left foreground a two-masted black sailing ship with empty spars is anchored; the bowsprit of the ship projects into the outer circle. The ship is anchored in front of a buff-colored bluff, while directly over the vessel a golden sun hangs in a pale blue sky.
Ron Lahav, 10 September 2004


Danville

The website at www.ci.danville.ca.us displays no municipal heraldry.
Ron Lahav, 10 September 2004


Davis

The website at www.city.davis.ca.us/topic/bicycles.cfm gives a description of the city seal, although no image of the city seal appears anywhere on the web site. It apparently features a high-wheeled 'penny-farthing' bicycle.
Ron Lahav, 10 September 2004

The City Clerk's Office has informed me that the city has neither a municipal flag nor a city seal, merely a rubber stamp with the words 'City of Davis, California' and a space for the name and title of the individual who is responsible for signing the document. If there is any requirement for a seal to be used at the top of a document, they simply use an ordinary piece of paper with the municipal logo (see below).
    The logo exists only in black on a white surface such as a document, headed paper, etc. It consists of what in the U.S. as called a 'Big-Wheel' bicycle and in the UK is known as a 'Penny-farthing', because the small wheel looks like a farthing (an obsolete coin worth one quarter of an old penny) and an old-fashioned penny piece. The word 'Davis' is written in a combination of upper and lower case letters, with the capital letter 'D' bisecting the large front wheel of the bicycle.
Ron Lahav, 22 September 2004


Delano

The website at www.delano_ca shows a seal with a standard circular format. The outer ring is yellow fimbriated blue. At the top are the words 'CITY OF' in black block letters using an 'Old West' font, while at the bottom 'DELANO' is found. In the middle of the outer ring, at each flank, are eight cotton flowers in natural colors, four pointing upward and four downward. Surrounding the central image are what appear to be 24 cotton bolls, oddly enough anchored in a blue field and with a green field on top. The central image itself is in blue, yellow, and white, but it is so busy that I am unable to distinguish any of the features.
Ron Lahav, 10 September 2004


Delmar

The website at www.delmar.ca.us displays no municipal heraldry.
Ron Lahav, 10 September 2004


Desert Hot Springs

The website at www.desert-hot-springs.us shows both a logo and a seal. The logo consists of two white Joshua trees, one large and the other small, on an olive background. A thin white line proceeds in a rightward direction from the top of the smaller tree for a small distance, then makes an acute 45 degree bend and descends vertically to intersect with a white base on which the two trees stand. The trunk of the larger tree combines to make a vertical rectangular oblong, except that the aforementioned white base extends some distance beyond the larger tree. To the right of the trees is a circle outlined in white, with three horizontal lines separated from each other at irregular intervals and with the bottom arc completely filled in in white.
    The city seal is in the standard circular format. The outer circle is in old gold fimbriated black, with the words 'CITY OF DESERT HOT SPRINGS' in black block letters at the top of the circle and 'CALIFORNIA' at the bottom. The central image is fimbriated white; in a blue sky an old gold sun with a series of stylized rays occupies the middle foreground. Immediately below the sun is a mountain range in black and gold. In the right foreground is black palm tree bowed, while the left foreground seems to depict a local dwelling in white and black, with a blue swimming pool in front of it. There are several additional objects which I am unable to identify.
Ron Lahav, 19 September 2004


Dinuba

The website at www.dinuba.org displays no municipal heraldry.
Ron Lahav, 19 September 2004


Dixon

The website at www.ci.dixon.ca.us shows an unusual seal in that the circular format seems to be made of tan wood or metal. At the top, in a large stylized Old West font, is the word 'DIXON', with the capital 'D' especially enlarged. this word outside the top of the outer circle. At the bottom of the outer circle the word 'CALIFORNIA' appears in small block letters as if they had been burnt into the wood or embossed into the metal. The central image contains in the right foreground a large tree, with a grayish-brown trunk and an extensive root system and with a crown of green leaves. Stretching into the middle distance is a plowed field also in green, with white buildings with black roofs in the background. Behind these buildings is a low green hill, with a blue sky overhead.
Ron Lahav, 19 September 2004


Dos Palos

The Dos Palos-Oro Loma Joint Unified School District web page reports "The city's flag consists of a royal blue background, a gold cross with the vertical gold bar crossing the horizontal bar at 1/3, and the city's seal in the middle. The flag is similar to the flag of Sweden (though darker blue) with the City's seal in the middle of the cross.  Dos Palos is in Merced County.
Dov Gutterman, 31 December 2002


Downey

The website at www.downeyca.org shows a circular seal with a gray outer ring. At the top are the words 'CITY OF DOWNEY' in black block letters, and 'CALIFORNIA' in similar letters at the bottom. To the right is the word and date 'FOUNDED 1873' in smaller black block lettering, while to the left is the word and date 'INCORPORATED 1916.' The central image consists of an orange sun with stylized orange rays rising into a yellow sky, all in the middle foreground. Beneath is a mirror of the sun and its rays in blue on a white background. To either side of the sun are industrial buildings in blue, with what appears to be smoke rising into the sky on the right. There also appear to be three symbols of industry in blue beneath, one on either side and one in the middle, but they are too indistinct for me to identify. At the very bottom of the image is a yellow ribbon folded into three parts and with the city motto written thereon; however the lettering is too miniscule for me to make out the text.
Ron Lahav, 19 September 2004


Duarte

The website at www.accessduarte.com shows an extremely unusually striking logo, which consists of a vertical rectangular oblong, divided top and bottom into two horizontal rectangular oblongs fimbriated black. Within the top horizontal rectangle are the words 'City of' written in black in a modified uncial script, reminiscent of the days of the Conquistadores, while the word 'Duarte' is similarly written in the bottom horizontal rectangle. The central image depicts a stylized landscape, with a blue river flowing between green and beige banks toward high snow-capped mountains, also in beige and white, with a blue sky and white clouds overhead; each feature is separated from the others by white fimbriation. Superimposed over all this is a large lower-case letter 'd' in 16th/17th Century handwritten script.
Ron Lahav, 19 September 2004


Dublin

The website at www.ci.dublin.ca.us borrows heavily on its more famous namesake, with shamrocks and leprechauns scattered liberally across the pages of the web site. However, there does not seem to have been an attempt to use any of the symbols of Dublin, Ireland, nor even its colors in its municipal heraldry. The seal is a standard circle with green edging outside and fimbriated black and gray within. The top of the outer circle has 'CITY OF DUBLIN' in stylized black block letters, and 'CALIFORNIA' at the bottom. At each flank is a Celtic design divided into two unequal parts, with the numerals '19' at the right and ''82' at the left, between the two portions. The central image is black on white, in the form of a Celtic cross, with the bottom of each section coming together to form a stylized union jack with a blank at the junction point. The top section of the cross contains a stagecoach, the right-hand portion a church building, the bottom what appears to be a plough, and the left-hand one a conventional three-leaved shamrock.
Ron Lahav, 19 September 2004


East Palo Alto

The seal of this city is in the standard circular format, with a blue outer circle. The words 'CITY OF EAST PALO ALTO' are written in white block letters at the top, while at the bottom, in smaller white block letters, is the word 'INCORPORATED' and an illegible date. The central image depicts an orange sun with four stylized black rays rising into a sky which is yellow at the base and orange at the top. The sun is shown rising over a range of hills, depicted in various shades of brown. Beneath these hills flows a blue river, on the other side of which, in the right foreground, there is a stand of trees on what appears to be a patch of snowy ground. The trees are green, and one of them, presumably a redwood, is much taller than the others and extends into the yellow sky. Facing the trees, in the left foreground, there appears to be a stylized family group, very small in relation to the trees; the group is all black and appears to consist of two adults and two children.
Ron Lahav, 25 September 2004


El Cajon

The website at www.ci.el-cajon.ca shows a very complex and vexillologically quite interesting seal. In a circular format both concentric circles are edged in brown. In the outer circle the words 'CITY OF EL CAJON' are written in brown block letters on a white field. At each flank are brown five-pointed stars, while at the bottom of the outer the word 'INCORPORATED' and the date 1912 are likewise written. The central image consists of two clasped hands outlined in red fesswise, with the remainder of the image quartered as follows: upper right, the S&S; upper left, Mexican tricolor; lower right, a castle or on a field gules; and lower left, what appears to be a drawing in a similar format to the clasped hands. Obviously the first three quarters depict heraldically the history of the city, i e, although I am unable to determine the significance of either the fourth quarter or the clasped hands, unless both have some sort of Masonic significance.
Ron Lahav, 25 September 2004


El Centro

The website at www.cityofelcentro.org shows a very modernistic circular format with the lower right hand border of the bottom semicircle in an irregular shape; this is because it is an outline map of the State of California. There is no outer ring, but the upper half of the semicircle consists of the words 'City of El Centro' in upper and lower case letters outlined in black and filled in with gold; the lower part of the semicircle is also edged in gold, and this edging runs fesswise across the middle of the seal, separating the upper part, which has no images, from the lower portion. This lower portion, as noted above, consists of a map of California in sand color in the right foreground, the borders depicted in black lines. To the left of the map is a blue irrigation canal running into the middle distance, while to the left of this canal is a further stretch of sand-colored land and an area colored a dark green in the left foreground. Within the map of California, marking the geographic location of El Centro, is a small green five-pointed star, from which arises a sand-colored stylized sunburst which extends into the upper semicircle. To the right of this sunburst, in miniscule black letters, is the word 'Incorporated' and an illegible date. Beneath the seal, in gold letters without the black edging which appears in the name of the city, is the municipal motto 'Shining With Opportunity.'
Ron Lahav, 25 September 2004

The City Clerk of El Centro, California, informed me that El Centro does indeed have a flag, but it consists merely of the municipal seal in the centre of a rectangular piece of cloth (color unstated). However, the City Council was dissatisfied with this design, and in 2002 they approved by consensus a design which a firm called Reliance Communications had submitted. I have asked for additional information regarding this flag.
    As for the significance of the symbolism displayed on the municipal seal, she further informed me that the sun represents the fact that it shines six months of the year in the area, making it a Mecca for American 'snowbirds', i e, winter tourists. The green fields represent agriculture; the blue the Colorado and New Rivers, which provide ample water for irrigation; while the yellow stands for the city itself and the ample space available for future development.
Ron Lahav, 28 September 2004


El Monte

The El Monte city website provides in its Civic Code a precise and detailed description of its city seal. as follows:
Section 1.08.010 City seal
There shall be provided for the city a common seal of which the City Clerk shall be the custodian and which shall be of the description following, to wit:
A circular space of two inches in diameter, around the upper circumference of which shall be the words "City of El Monte" with two stars on each side of the phrase. Around the lower circumference shall be the words [sic] "California". Inside of such words shall be a circle seven thirty-seconds inches in width. Inside the circle shall be the words "End of the Santa Fe" in the upper circumference, and the word "Trail" in the lower circumference. A yellow ribbon seven thirty-seconds inches in width will span horizontally across the entire width of the seal and will have words which read "Inc. 1912". The interior diameter of the seal shall be one inch and three-sixteenth in width and contains a covered wagon; a trail; a structure situated on green hills, and brown mountains located against light blue sky and white puffy clouds. This common seal of the city shall be hereinafter referred to in this chapter as the "city seal".
Ron Lahav, 25 September 2004


Emeryville

The webpage at www.ci.emeryville.ca.us shows the city logo consisting of four arrows alternating blue and green, so arranged that their heads point to the lower and upper right and left respectively, the whole mounted upon a black square. Where the arrowheads intersect a thin black cross is formed.
Ron Lahav, 30 September 2004


Encinitas

The website at www.ci.enmcinitas.ca.us shows this city has both a seal and a logo. The seal is in the standard circular format, edged white on the interior and green on the exterior. The outer circle is dark blue, with the words 'CITY OF ENCINITAS' in white block letters at the top and 'Incorporated 1986' in white lower-case letters at the bottom. The central image features a golden sun in the left foreground, with a white and gold falcon in the right foreground; one wing touches the disc of  the sum while the other extends into the outer circle. There is also a stylized reflection of sunlight on a blue sea. The lower half of the central image features a gray horses head bridled black in the lower right foreground, and a large unidentified pink flower in the lower left; this flower extends past the outer circle and in fact slightly outside the ring of the seal itself. The municipal logo consists of a range of hills in gray, with two tall trees of different heights in black at the summit of the hill in the right foreground. The words 'City of Encinitas' are written in two rows of black lower-case letters of differing sizes to the left of the trees. The word 'Encinitas' is shadowed in gray.
Ron Lahav, 30 September 2004


Escondido

The website at www.ci.escondido.ca.us shows the logo consists of the name of the city over a range of stylized hills, with a similar suggestion of clouds sketched overhead. Beneath the name of the city is the municipal motto, 'City of Choice', written in lower-case lettering. All colors used are shades of blue.
Ron Lahav, 30 September 2004

Continued: California Municipal Symbols, F-H