Crayon fans select states’ true colors

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The secret’s out.

Devon Whitton, an 11-year-old Gladstone, Mo., girl, has named a crayon.

It’s in the new, limited edition State Crayon Collection from Crayola. Crayon fans like Devon across the country entered a contest to name a waxy stick after each state.

Now the winning colors are snuggled inside a 64-pack that hit stores recently. (The “extras” are all-American colors like the grapey “Fruited Plains.”)

Devon named hers “Archway Gray” after that tall, curvy, silvery thing in St. Louis.

Some of the other winners: “Yellow Brick Road” (Kansas), “10,000 Lakes of Blue” (Minnesota), “Lobster Red” (Maine), “Grand Tanyon” (Arizona), “Moovalous Cheese” (Wisconsin’s cheddary yellow), “Abe Lincoln’s Hat,” (Illinois’ black) and “Wild Prairie Rose” (North Dakota’s hot pink).

As the rules required, “we just started thinking of things that people thought about when people think of Missouri, and we tried to think of a color that would go with that landmark,” Devon said.

Devon, a sixth-grader, entered the contest last summer and learned in August that one of her entries won. But she couldn’t tell anyone until the company announced the results.

“She wanted to tell everybody at school, she’s just been so excited,” said Devon’s mom, Tina Whitton.

Then, when Devon received her box of crayons this week and saw that her name isn’t on Archway Gray, she worriedly asked her mother: “How will they believe me, Mom?”

(Somehow, we think they’ll believe her.)

Brainstorming proved a snap for Devon, who can’t decide if math or her class for academically gifted students is her favorite in school. She draws nearly every day, wearing out at least two boxes of crayons a year. She has a PlayStation but doesn’t use it.

“I draw a lot of things around me,” said Devon, who won about $100 worth of Crayola products for her effort.

Her three entries – Lewis and Clark Green, and Tried and True Truman Blue didn’t make the cut – were among more than 25,000 nominations Crayola received. Crayola chose the winning names based on originality, creativity and relevancy to the state.

Contestants could choose to rename any of Crayola’s 120 colors. Blue proved the most popular choice, as in “Motown Blues” for Michigan and “Big Sky” for Montana. “And that just follows what people’s preferences are,” said Crayola spokeswoman Stacy Gabrielle, “because blue is America’s favorite color.”

There were lots of ideas for snowy white – “especially in states like Minnesota,” Gabrielle said – but in the end there’s only one white crayon in the box. It’s “Space Needle,” representing Washington state.

The litmus test for choosing the names was simple, Gabrielle said. Does that name draw a mental picture of that state?

Well, with Washington’s color being “Space Needle” (a stark white) and Idaho’s “Tater Tan” (the desert sand color) there really are not many surprises there.

So what, then, does a rather dull, wet-rodent gray say about Missouri? (Devon simply named the color; Crayola created it after all.)

One could easily argue (and should) that the Kansas crayon is sunnier.

Oklahoma’s orangey-red “Panhandle Paintbrush” is certainly peppier.

Even Nebraska’s tritely named “Cornhusker Yellow” is spunkier.

At least it’s not the color of a battleship.

Or depression.

Gabrielle admitted that children gravitate toward the bright, bold colors in the crayon box.

But gray, she points out diplomatically, “is a necessary color. How could you draw an elephant without gray?”