Where the Columbines Grow

Where the Columbines Grow is one of the two official state songs of the U.S. state of Colorado. It was written and composed by Dr. Arthur John Fynn in 1911, 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.

In October 1978, Dave Beadles, then the music director for 740 KSSS in Colorado Springs, petitioned Governor Richard Lamm to temporarily change the state song for Country Music Month to Colorado, written by Dave Kirby. The petition was successful and Kirby was flown to Colorado for the occasion.

Lyrics

Verse 1

Where the snowy peaks gleam 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.

Chorus

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.

Verse 2

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 his 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.