In 2022, Salem adopted a new flag that breaks radically with its old bureaucratic design. On a white field with a vertical blue band on the left, a stylized pink cherry blossom occupies the center-right, with a white five-pointed star at the heart of its petals.
The cherry blossom is not a tourist cliché. Salem is home to Willamette University, whose campus contains Japanese cherry trees given by the Japanese consul in 1935. Every spring, the city celebrates the Salem Cherry Blossom Festival. The cherry trees have become synonymous with the local identity.
It is a city of civil servants, students, surrounding farms. The Willamette Valley around Salem produces hops, wine, fruit – it is the fertile agricultural hinterland that feeds Portland.
The new flag, adopted on July 11, 2022, reflects an attempt at identity modernization. Salem wants to be more than an administrative capital. It wants to be recognized for its beauty, its Japanese culture, its horticultural heritage. The flag is a statement: Salem exists, Salem matters, Salem blooms.