“America the Beautiful” has endured for more than a century as one of our country’s best-loved patriotic songs. It began as a poem written by Katharine Lee Bates, who was born in Falmouth and spent much of her life as a teacher at Wellesley College. Bates traveled to Colorado in 1893 to teach at Colorado College. On a day trip to Pike’s Peak, the grandeur and natural beauty of the surroundings inspired her to compose the first draft of the poem that would later become “America the Beautiful.”