Sunday, June 21, 2026

Question: “America the Beautiful” started as a poem one visitor scribbled in 1893 after taking in the view from what Colorado mountain peak?

Answer: Pikes Peak. That summer, Wellesley College professor Katharine Lee Bates rode by wagon and mule to the 14,000-foot summit while teaching a session at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. The “sea-like expanse” she saw from the top moved her to write the poem — originally titled “Pikes Peak” — first published July 4, 1895, and later set to Samuel A. Ward’s music. The line “purple mountain majesties” came straight from that view.