
Similar to the original flag the stars represent all 39 townships of Cook County. The 30 outer stars represent the townships outside of Chicago, the 8 inner stars represent those inside the city, and the big middle star represents the city itself. The design also has the four, 6-pointed red stars of the Chicago flag to represent the major events of Fort Dearborn, the Great Chicago Fire, the World’s Columbian Exposition, and the Century of Progress Exposition as a way to show some of the history synonymous with Chicago and, therefore, Cook County. Lastly, Some of the stars are differently colored in order to specifically represent the stars that certain municipalities have on their own flags. Black for the star on Orland Park’s flag, orange for Orland township, yellow for Cicero, yellow-orange for Des Plaines, green for Maine township, grey for Thornton township, gold for Lansing, and then white for flags that have white stars (like Park Ridge and Evanston) or that do not have stars at all.