Pratt first asked Heft where he got his crystal ball, referring to Heft's presumption that Alaska and Hawaii would both be added to the Union. Heft handed the project in to his history teacher, Stanly Pratt. After 12 grueling hours, his flag was sewn and pressed. With a yardstick he was able to place the stars in a proportional pattern. Heft used his mother's sewing machine and a hot iron to add a new blue canton and 100 hand-cut stars (50 for each side) to the field of an old forty-eight star flag. Eisenhower, who was a Republican, would want to add Hawaii shortly after the addition of Alaska, since Hawaii was predominantly Republican and Alaska Democratic. Wise beyond his years, Heft already had an ongoing interest in flags and politics. Meanwhile, seventeen-year-old Bob Heft decided to create a fifty-star flag for his high school history project. Statehood legislation was brought up year after year for both territories, but by 1958 it seemed only Alaska would gain statehood.įlag makers began designing forty-nine star flags anticipating the addition of a new state. In 1916 the first official statehood bill for Alaska came before Congress, and three years later the bill for Hawaii followed. Between 1898-1912 Alaska and Hawaii both became United States territories. It begins with the impending statehood of Alaska and Hawaii. The story of the fifty-star flag is an intriguing tidbit of American history.