Where the Columbines Grow

"Where the Columbines Grow" is one of the two official state songs of Colorado. It was written and composed by A.J. Fynn, and was adopted on May 8, 1915. In the early to mid-2000s, there was debate over replacing "Where the Columbines Grow" with John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" or Merle Haggard's rare song "Colorado". In 2007, the Colorado legislature named "Rocky Mountain High" as Colorado's second official state song, paired with "Where the Columbines Grow".^[1]

In October of 1978(?) I was Music Director of KSSS. BOb May was Program Director. We petitioned the Govenor (Romer?) to use "Colorado" by Dave Kirby (writer) that for the month of Ictober the song be "official" as it was Country Music Month. I got the station to pay Dave Kirby's airfare and he attended. We wore out several copies of Kirby's 45 and Hagarrd's "cover" of the song during the ensuing years. KSSS under mynprogramimg and willingness to try new acts was the CMA Country Music Statio of the year two years running for a medium market.

Dave Beadles 729-632-5433 (work)

Lyrics

Where the snowy peaks glow in the moonlight,

Above the dark forests of pine,

And the wild foaming waters dash onward,

Toward lands where the tropic stars shine;

Where the scream of the bold mountain eagle

Responds to the notes of the dove

Is the purple robed West, the land that is best,

The pioneer land that we love.

Tis the land where the columbines grow,

Overlooking the plains far below,

While the cool summer breeze in the evergreen trees

Softly sings where the columbines grow.

The bison is gone from the upland,

The deer from the canyon has fled,

The home of the wolf is deserted,

The antelope moans for he is dead,

The war whoop re-echoes no longer,

The Indian's only a name,

And the nymphs of the grove in their loneliness rove,

But the columbine blooms just the same. Let the violet brighten the brookside,

In sunlight of earlier spring,

Let the fair clover bedeck the green meadow,

In days when the orioles sing,

Let the goldenrod herald the autumn,

But, under the midsummer sky,

In its fair Western home, may the columbine bloom

Till our great mountain rivers run dry.

See also

• Colorado

References