County craftsman celebrates the American flag

Key Takeaways

Vance Stuehrenberg was closing in on the 13th stripe of a wooden American flag when he realized how many counties were in Kentucky. 

It was going to take a little creativity to fit the last 11 of the commonwealth’s 120 counties.

“I had no idea there were that many counties in Kentucky,” he said. “I had to double up their names on that last stripe, it would be twice as thick.

“I’m certainly learning a lot about the country and all the counties.”

Stuehrenberg is a Blue Earth County, Minn. commissioner, and he spent the pandemic, like many people, honing a craft — woodworking. Growing up on a Minnesota farm, he had the mechanical skills to get by, but he wasn’t particularly moved by the work he did in high school shop class.

“I always enjoyed working with my hands, but I didn’t really start on this until retirement,” from his position on the Mankato police force. “I build planting pails for the yard, things like that.”

While attending a craft fair with his wife, Mary, he noted the price tag on a set of lawn dice, which was enough to motivate him to make the most of the tools in his garage.

“I knew I could do just as good a job myself,” he said. “Then I started looking at Pinterest and YouTube and that opened my eyes to the kinds of projects I could do. Then it became, ‘how can I do a flag?’”

Stuehrenberg’s calling card in county government has become his work crafting wooden flags. For state associations of counties, he fills the stripes with the carved names of counties, with the association’s logo in place of the stars. Other flags celebrate individual leaders’ tenures and achievements. 

And he is a stickler for details. In his NACo flag, he carved the names of states with active county governments, which would trip up a layman who would be surprised to see Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont missing. He has augmented his mechanical skills by learning how to use a computer numerical control machine for precision woodworking.

He has also built flags for Association of Minnesota Counties fundraising auctions, with proceeds going to the Minnesota Counties Foundation.

“I’m lucky that Mary lets me keep so much lumber in the house,” he said. “I love the flag, so being able to create this work that builds a closer association between these groups, and the flag gives me a lot of meaning.”