After several months of evaluating community feedback and tinkering with the design, Boscawen now has an official city flag.

The City Council voted last week to approve the flag, which is the work of city resident Josh Crawford. Crawford first proposed the flag design at the Boscawen Town Meeting earlier this year.

“We can define the image and character of our city with a great flag,” Crawford wrote in a video unveiling the final design. “It is something that represents a city to its people, and its people to the world at large. Every great city deserves a great flag.”

The Elder Tree flag – consisting of four clearly visible bands of color – is full of symbolism.

The green of the upper band represents Boscawen’s agricultural history and lifestyle, while the three elder trees (which also feature on Boscawen’s town seal) symbolize the fertile soil of the town’s farmland. The three trees also represent past, future and present, alluding to “how our roots are intertwined across all generations,” Crawford wrote.

The black stripes on the next band represent that Routes 3 and 4, which converge in Boscawen, serve as the “Crossroads of New Hampshire.” The white stripe in the center, which includes six stars and the words “Lest We Forget,” is a tribute to the state veterans cemetery there.

The third band covers the dark blue course of the Merrimack River, which forms the eastern border of the city.

The lower band represents the town’s forest and wildlife and is placed at the bottom to symbolise “growth from the ground to the treetops” in the upper band. The wheelbarrow clock mechanism, which is placed on top of the band, represents Boscawen’s industrial past and modern industrial economy. The mechanism was designed by a Boscawen clockmaker in 1816.

The final design was the result of feedback from about 150 residents. One resident criticized the original designs because most of them included the city’s Hannah Duston statue and the Boscawen Congregational Church. Mark Barker, 75, felt that including the statue would give the impression that the city was honoring Duston’s murder of 10 Abenaki people in 1697, while including the church would violate the constitutionally guaranteed separation between church and state.

Crawford responded to Barker’s feedback and removed both symbols. Crawford is a vexillologist, which means he studies flags.

By designing a flag, Boscawen joins at least 24 cities and towns in the state, including Concord, Laconia and Windham, according to the website CRWFlags.

It’s not yet clear where or when Boscawen’s flag will fly, but if Concord is an inspiration, it could grace the background of the town’s Select Board meeting room.

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at [email protected].