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Charles County, Maryland (U.S.)

image by Blas Delgado Ortiz, 31 October 2005

See also:

State of Maryland

Charles County is one of the three counties that constitute southern Maryland (the others being Calvert and St. Mary's Counties). It is located southeast of Washington DC and adjacent to Prince George's County between the Potomac and Patuxent Rivers. The northern end of the county is mostly a bedroom community for commuters in the metropolitan area, the central and southern portions are generally rural. The town of Indian Head is home to one of the bases of the Naval Surface Weapons Center. Bryantown in Charles County was the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd, who was convicted as a co-conspirator in the assassination of President Lincoln after having set the broken ankle of John Wilkes Booth.

The flag is basically the county seal on a bordered yellow field. As the flag may not be 100% accurate some notes that will hopefully fuel discussion and any potential corrections:

The flag is based upon a poor quality photograph of it being presented to a southern Maryland youth group. The detail is not the best. For instance, the color of the border appears deep blue in some monitors and black in others. I opted for a deep blue in the GIF.
The font used for the lettering "Charles Covnty" (the olde English spelling) is not clear enough to say that the one I used is precise.
The county seal shows the county name and date of erection in black on the blue borders running up the left and down the right sides. However, as the date of erection is in white on the photograph I have (and black in the seal), and the presence of the name cannot be determined, I have concluded (perhaps incorrectly) that the name may be omitted from the seal on the flag, which probably is the reason for the lettering below the seal.

In other words, the flag is at best partially accurate.

Phil Nelson, 10 April 2002

I can confirm the basic font for the county name as being a Roman (serif) style. It appeared to me that the coat of arms was on a dark blue circle, rather than oval (darker than in the image above), and that the border of the flag was darker still--as Phil says, maybe even black, but at least B+++. Also, I think the coat of arms was a little smaller than shown. I can't be sure of any of this, as I saw the flags flapping in a light breeze while driving by at 85-100 km/h.

Joe McMillan, 30 June 2003

I had a chance to drop by the Charles County Health Department twice today in optimum conditions where the flag flies outside along Rt. 301. The coat of arms is on a dark blue oval, perhaps B+. However there was some very interesting optical effects that can make the coat of arms appear circular as it waves.

Phil Nelson, 1 August 2003