The Colorado state motto, Nil Sine Numine, means “Nothing without divinity” and appears on the state seal. The seal also features a shield and crests of the governor and secretary who designed it. The state flag has changed over time. Colorado has unofficial mottos such as “Centennial State” and “The Highest State.” The state animal is the Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, the state fish is the greenback cutthroat trout, the state flower is the Rocky Mountain columbine, and the state bug is the Colorado hairstreak butterfly.
Colorado’s state motto, Nil Sine Numine, has several slight variations in its translation. The Colorado Department of Personnel and Administration (DPA) describes the motto as “Nothing without divinity.” Other translations include “Nothing without Providence” and “Nothing without God.” The word numine is a Latin word that literally translates to “deity.” In this regard, the most accurate translation of the Colorado state motto is “Nothing without divinity.”
The Latin locution Nil Sine Numine appears in Virgil’s work, Aeneid, from which the motto could be derived. The state motto of Colorado is engraved on the state seal. Both the state seal and state motto were jointly adopted by the First Colorado General Assembly in 1877. William Gilpin, Colorado’s first territorial governor, had commissioned L.C. Weld, the territory’s secretary, to design a seal for Colorado. The governor approved Weld’s design for the seal and personally included the words Nil Sine Numine, which would become the Colorado state motto.
The state seal of Colorado has a representation of a shield in the center. The crest contains designs of both Governor Gilpin’s family crest and Secretary Weld’s family crest. Below the shield, is a scroll with the words that make up the Colorado state motto.
The original state flag of Colorado had a blue background with the shield in the center. The flag was changed to another design in 1911. The new design had three horizontal stripes of blue and white. The white stripe was in the center and the letter “C” was placed on a white background. A golden disc in the center of the “C” completed the design. In 1964, the design was adapted to increase the diameter of the gold disc.
In addition to Colorado’s official state motto, the state has a few unofficial mottos such as “Centennial State,” a reference to Colorado becoming a U.S. state a century after its declaration of independence. “The Highest State” refers to the fact that Colorado has the most mountains reaching 14,000 feet (4,267.2 meters) of all the states. Gold was discovered in Denver, Colorado in 1858; the area was called “Pike’s Peak” at the time leading to the state slogan “Pike’s Peak or Bust”.
Other official state symbols include the Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, which is the state animal, and the greenback cutthroat trout, which is the state fish. The Rocky Mountain columbine is the state flower, while the state bug is the Colorado hairstreak butterfly.
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