Katharine Lee Bates, an English professor at Wellesley College, wrote a poem titled Pikes Peak as she was traveling to Colorado Springs by rail to teach a summer course at Colorado College in 1893. The poem was published two years later commemorating the 4th of July, and Bates edited it at various times until arriving to the final and well-known version. Interestingly, the accompanying music was composed before the poem, in 1882, by Samuel Ward, an organist at the Episcopal Grace Church in Newark, NJ. The poem and the music were first published together in 1910. Here is the official version of the lyrics transcribed by me in Centennial Gregg for the blog.
Attachment: america-the-beautiful.pdf