An old stars and stripes with 48 stars found in courthouse

A Mineral County employee stumbled across a little piece of history in the Mineral County Courthouse last week, while examining the building for repairs.

Mineral County Commissioner Administrative Assistant Cindy Grimm and her husband Mark, a carpenter, were examining the copula of the Mineral County Courthouse to see what repairs needed to be made to the structure, which has been out of use for years, last Monday.

While examining the room, Cindy Grimm noticed an American flag draped over some banisters in the back of the room. She picked it up and found that it was ripped in half, but decided to take it down to her office anyway.

While down in her office, Cindy and Mark Grimm took a look at the tattered old flag. It was dirty, old and frayed, but Mark Grimm saw something else. He noticed that all of the stars on the flag were perfectly aligned. Modern American flags have offset stars to allow for a symmetrical look when placing 50 stars in one field. This flag however only had 48 stars, which meant that the flag was made sometime in between 1912 and 1959.

The stars, which each represent one of the 50 states in America, were last added to in 1959 when Alaska and Hawaii were admitted as states. Before that, the last time a star was added to Old Glory was in 1912, with the admission of Arizona and New Mexico.

Cindy Grimm took the flag to Mineral County Attorney Shaun Donovan to confirm her thoughts about the flag and find out what should be done with the relic.

After talking with Donovan, Grimm decided that the best place for the flag is in the Mineral County Courthouse where it used to fly.

Mark Grimm has plans to build a glass case for the flag so it can be prominently displayed in the courthouse.

Cindy Grimm said she plans to contact the Mineral County Historical Society to see if they can find any information on the flag and its origins.

“Who knows, they may find a picture of what they believe to be this flag,” Cindy Grimm said.

Grimm said the flag is in bad shape and she has to be very careful with it.

“They told us not to even touch it because it’s so old. I’m not sure we’re even going to clean it, we may just leave it dirty,” Cindy Grimm said.

Grimm said that she is excited to have found such an interesting piece of the county’s history, especially since it has been sitting up in the attic of the courthouse for so long.

For now, the flag will sit in Grimm’s office, waiting for its new home on prominent display in the courthouse. Grimm said that it is a busy time for her husband, but he has some nice wood set aside for the project and as soon as he gets a chance the flag will be put on display.