In 1993, 100 years after Bates ascended Pikes Peak, Colorado Springs’ businessman Costas Rombocos donated an “America the Beautiful” monument that was placed atop Pikes Peak. The monument can be seen on the observation platform to the south of the Summit House.

Bates wrote the words as a poem, originally titled "Pikes Peak". It was first published in the Fourth of July 1895 edition of the church periodical, The Congregationalist. At that time, the poem was titled "America".

The opening lines of what became the song “America the Beautiful” first struck Katharine Lee Bates atop Pikes Peak in the Rocky Mountains. During the summer of 1893, Bates took a leave of absence from Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where she taught English literature.

In a brief essay that appeared ca. 1925, poet Katharine Lee Bates described her inspiration for writing "America the Beautiful," the poem that would evolve into one of the nation’s best-loved patriotic songs, during a trip to Pike’s Peak in 1893.

The song, “America the Beautiful," was based on a poem written by the professor, poet, and writer, Katharine Lee Bates, during an 1893 trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado. When she got to the top of Pike’s Peak, the view was so beautiful that it inspired her to write, "All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse."

Jul 29, 1990 · Looking eastward from the summit of Pikes Peak, 14,110 feet above sea level, you see an endless expanse of spacious skies stretching over amber waves of grain. When you turn around and gaze...

Shown Above is the unveiling of the “America the Beautiful” Centennial Memorial at Pikes Peak’s summit on October 5, 1993. The 8’x4’ bronze plaque designates the site where Katharine Lee Bates was inspired to write the words “America the Beautiful” in 1893.

Jul 2, 2018 · Prairie wagons, their tail-boards emblazoned with the traditional slogan, “Pike’s Peak or Bust,” were pulled by horses up to the half-way house, where the horses were relieved by mules.

Dec 28, 2023 · Let's take a walk down history lane and see how Colorado's Pikes Peak inspired the song "America the Beautiful." *Originally published in 2019: We all know the song "America the Beautiful," but where did it come from?

Aug 12, 2024 · America the Beautiful by Katharine Lee Bates Bates' inspiration for writing America the Beautiful came near Pikes Peak, Colorado, when she was teaching at Colorado College in 1893: "One day some of the other teachers …