A local performance on the summit of Pikes Peak this August brought renewed attention to one of Colorado Springs' most storied contributions to American culture — the poem that became the nation's unofficial second anthem.
A visiting professor at Colorado College, Katharine Lee Bates, first penned the poem that became the song in the summer of 1893 after inspiring words struck during a visit to the top of Pikes Peak. She finished the first draft of the poem that summer, and on July 4, 1895, Bates published "America" in The Congregationalist. By 1904, it was set to music written by Samuel Ward, who adapted the tune from his hymn, Materna.
For Colorado Day on Aug. 1 this year, longtime local songstress Laura Rupejko, videographer Tom Hellauer, and Gazette columnist Vince Bzdek traveled to the top of Pikes Peak so that Rupejko could sing her rendition of the song at the very spot that inspired "America" — a birthday present to the state for its 150th anniversary. The group loaded amplifiers, microphones, a guitar, extension cords, and video equipment onto the Cog Railway at 7:30 in the morning to make their way to the summit. The team was not entirely sure how much effort it would take to sing at 14,115 feet, with no oxygen, in the wind.
"America the Beautiful" has been part of Rupejko's repertoire since she became the resident musician at the Garden of the Gods Resort many years ago. "The first Fourth of July that I played at the Garden of the Gods Resort, I was outside on the patio and you can see Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak so beautifully from that view. And so I started my entire gig, just singing 'America.' A cappella," she said.
The performance carried particular resonance given the song's deep local roots. Bates once remarked that she could see the seas of grass and grain fields in Kansas from the top of Pikes Peak, and they directly inspired the amber waves and fruited plains lyrics. The words "alabaster cities gleam" had been suggested to Bates on her way to Colorado that summer, when she stopped at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where Greek and Roman architecture inspired the designs for several exhibition halls. Builders had covered the façades with a white material made of plaster and hemp fiber, and the Exposition — the first World's Fair entirely powered by electricity — gave those halls their gleam.
Elsewhere on the summit, after Rupejko's first run-through, other visitors broke out into their own spontaneous versions of the song. The scene underscored the enduring pull of a piece written just steps from where it was performed. "America the Beautiful" has continued to show up at the nation's biggest moments as a kind of unofficial second anthem — from Ray Charles at the 2001 World Series following 9/11, to Brandi Carlile performing it twice this year, at Super Bowl LX and at the Statue of Liberty's 250th anniversary.
There are those who argue that Colorado's "America" should be the real national anthem, with some contending that "The Star-Spangled Banner" is too hard to sing, requires a wide vocal range, has an awkward meter, and that most people prefer "America the Beautiful" as more melodic and easier for crowds. None of these efforts have gained any real traction in Congress.
Video of the summit performance had not yet been publicly released at the time of reporting, and no broadcast date has been announced.