The seal prominently features a map showing one of the state's most valuable resources—its major rivers.

The design was replaced with a new seal on December 29, 1868, featuring an American bald eagle with a U.S. shield.

In the centre of the seal an eagle is represented with raised wings alighting upon the national shield, with three arrows in his left talon.

In 1939, at the request of Governor Frank M. Dixon, the original concept of a map design was returned to use.

[2]The use of stars in the border, the specific design of the letterforms and the map image, the labeling of adjacent states and the Gulf of Mexico, and the application of colors to the seal are not described in the law.