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Feeling patriotic after your July Fourth celebrations? Here’s a fun fact: One of America’s most popular patriotic songs was inspired by Pikes Peak.
The lyrics for “America the Beautiful” were written by Katharine Lee Bates after a visit to the top of Pikes Peak. It was first published as a poem called “Pikes Peak” in the Fourth of July edition of church periodical “The Congregationalist.”
The music was composed by Samuel A. Ward at Grace Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey. Though the two never met, their creative works were combined and published in 1910 and titled “America the Beautiful.”
– Leah Steinberg, The 100 Companies