America the Beautiful - Katherine Lee Bates - Pikes Peak, CO
N 38° 50.396 W 105° 02.542
13S E 496322 N 4299015
Bronze plaques commemorating Katherine Lee Bates' inspiration to pen America the Beautiful. #5275
Waymark Code: WMT4YA
Location: Colorado, United States
Date Posted: 09/26/2016
Views: 10
An initial draft of "America the Beautiful" was penned in a half-hour visit to the summit of Pikes Peak in the summer of 1893. Bates taught English Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She remembers:
'One day some of the other teachers and I decided to go on a trip to 14,000-foot Pikes Peak. We hired a prairie wagon. Near the top we had to leave the wagon and go the rest of the way on mules. I was very tired. But when I saw the view, I felt great joy. All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse.'
The famous poem was first printed in The Congregationalist, a weekly journal, on Independence Day, 1895. Reaching more readers, revised versions were printed in the Boston Evening Transcript in November 1904. The final draft was written in 1913.
The poem has become America's frontier anthem.
Group that erected the marker: Costas Rombocos
URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link]
Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary:
5069 Pikes Peak Hwy
Cascade, CO USA
80809
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