During mid-summer of 1967, Ron Saylor, the head of the Stanly County Industrial Commission, discovered that Stanly County had no official seal. Saylor’s job was to create and distribute material that promoted Stanly County so he felt a seal would be an important visual to include in these documents. During August, Saylor shared an idea with the county commissioners that his office be allowed to conduct a contest among students throughout the local schools to design a county seal. The commissioners agreed as long as they were the ones who would choose the winner. The contest was evidently held later in the fall of 1967 but for a reason that is not clear, it was not until the Sept. 6, 1968 edition of the SNAP that a picture of the new seal was published in the paper. The new seal highlighted the three most important industries of the time: aluminum, textiles and agriculture. It had been designed by Douglas Hahn, who was a ninth-grade student at the time. {Lewis Bramlett – Stanly County Historical Society}