The first Board of County Commissioners adopted the wild turkey as Collier County's official emblem on July 9, 1923. A bird native to the area and an important food source for the area's early settlers, the wild turkey is still at home in the County's woodlands.

In 1962, the County's Clerk of Courts, Margaret T. Scott, incorporated the wild turkey into a County seal and later, a County flag patterned after Florida's state flag.