LANCASTER, Ohio, June 25 (DC Times Online) — Bob Heft’s story starts in Lancaster, Ohio, but it reaches places travelers still recognize today: Washington, D.C., and state capitols around the country. That is where Heft said his homemade 50-star U.S. flag ended up after he designed it as a high school project and sent it to President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
A school project in Ohio
In a StoryCorps oral history, Heft said he was 17 and a high school junior when his history teacher assigned a project about making a flag. Heft said he had watched his mother sew, so he made his own version of the American flag and chose a 50-star design.
Heft also said the teacher gave him a B- and told him, “If you don’t like the grade, get it accepted in Washington then come back and see me.”
That challenge became the heart of the story Heft told for the rest of his life.
How the design became the official flag
Heft said he sent the flag to President Eisenhower in 1959 and asked him to adopt it for the nation’s new flag as Hawaii became the 50th state. Fox News reported that Heft created his 50-star flag before the Eisenhower administration officially adopted the design.
The official 50-star flag became the U.S. flag on July 4, 1960, after Hawaii joined the Union.
In later correspondence quoted by Fox News, Heft said, “I made and flew the first 50-star flag in the United States.” He also said the flag was first flown on March 7, 1959. Those are Heft’s claims, and the supplied materials do not include independent archival proof of the first-flight date.
Why the flag turned up at state capitols
Fox News reported that Heft’s flag was later flown over at least 40 state capitol buildings from 1960 to 1962, including those in Texas, New York, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Utah, Nebraska and Alaska.
One of the most detailed examples came from Texas. Fox News quoted Gov. Price Daniel as saying the flag flew over the state capitol in Austin for five hours on Oct. 5, 1960, and that it would have stayed up all day “except for a rain and high wind” that started around noon.
Fox News also quoted Ohio Gov. Michael DiSalle as writing that he was “pleased to verify your story that yours was the first 50-star flag displayed in Ohio on Ohio property.”
Published retellings differ on the total number of capitols and embassies that later displayed the flag, so the safest reading is that Heft’s flag was widely shown in public places, but the exact count is not settled in the materials supplied here.
What travelers should know
For travelers interested in U.S. history, the Bob Heft story is tied to places that are easy to put on a map: Lancaster, where the project began; Washington, where the design was sent and later honored; and state capitols, where the flag was displayed after it became official.
The practical takeaway is simple: the 50-star flag is not just a symbol on paper. It is part of the history built into civic landmarks across the country, especially the White House, the Capitol, and state capitol buildings.
