{"id":36781,"date":"2022-12-13T09:35:09","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T16:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/most-coloradans-think-rocky-mountain-high-is-the-states-only-official-song-heres-the-story-of-the-other\/"},"modified":"2022-12-13T16:35:09","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T16:35:09","slug":"most-coloradans-think-rocky-mountain-high-is-the-states-only-official-song-heres-the-story-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/most-coloradans-think-rocky-mountain-high-is-the-states-only-official-song-heres-the-story-of\/","title":{"rendered":"Most Coloradans think \u2018Rocky Mountain High\u2019 is the state\u2019s only official song. Here\u2019s the story of the other."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A columbine flower in a Denver garden. \u201cWhere the Columbines Grow\u201d was named the official state song in 1915, and John Denver's 1973 hit song \u201cRocky Mountain High\u201d was named an official second state song in 2007. (Megan Verlee\/CPR News)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

You probably know what Colorado\u2019s nickname<\/a> is and the state flower<\/a>. You might even know what the state bird is \u2026 it\u2019s the lark bunting<\/a>, in case you were wondering. But did you know the state has an official song too? Well, two, to be exact.<\/p>\n

Aimee Resnick grew up in Centennial, but a recent conversation with her roommate at Northwestern University<\/a> prompted her to wonder something that she did not know.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere does the state song, \u201cWhere the Columbines Grow<\/a>\u201d come from?\u201d Resnick said. \u201cI was talking about John Denver<\/a> with my roommate and Rocky Mountain High<\/a>, and I was wondering where this other kind of superfluous, more outdated song came from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, in fact, two songs have been designated as Colorado\u2019s official state songs. Both songs\u2019 creators express a profound appreciation for nature and the breathtaking beauty of Colorado, and they were both influenced by memorable summers spent in the Rocky Mountains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere the Columbines Grow<\/a>\u201d was named the official state song in 1915. A.J. Fynn<\/a> wrote the song after being moved by a field of columbines he saw during a hike near Schinzel Flats<\/a>. Fynn came to Colorado as a school principal in Central City.<\/p>\n

During this time, Fynn actively explored archaeology in Colorado when his fascination with the Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings inspired him to write two books: The American Indian as a Product of Environment<\/a> and North America in the Days of Discovery<\/a>. In the time between his books on Native Americans, he wrote the music and lyrics for \u201cWhere the Columbines Grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The song includes outdated and insensitive references to Native Americans, but in 1915 \u2013 the year it was published and became the state song \u2013 he also dedicated it to the Colorado pioneers. Fynn\u2019s lyrics don\u2019t just reference the displacement of Native Americans from the land, they also reveal his concern for the environment and foreshadow present-day concerns about endangered species, drought and wildfires.<\/p>\n

In 2007, an attempt was made to replace Fynn\u2019s \u201cWhere the Columbines Grow\u201d with John Denver\u2019s 1973 hit song \u201cRocky Mountain High.\u201d But despite the controversy over how some viewed the Denver song as glorifying drug use, on March 12, 1973, the Colorado General Assembly designated it a second official state song<\/a>, ranking equally with \u201cWhere the Columbines Grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Fynn, John Denver wasn\u2019t a native of Colorado, but he too developed a deep connection to the state. When Denver was camping at Williams Lake near Aspen, far from any city lights, he saw the Perseid meteor shower. That inspired him to collaborate with guitarist Mike Taylor in 1972 to pen \u201cRocky Mountain High.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the widespread interpretation of the lyric \u201cFriends around the campfire and everybody\u2019s high\u201d as a reference to drug use, Denver insisted that the song was actually about experiencing the euphoria of nature.<\/p>\n

Aimee Resnick says both songs work well \u2013 together.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey honor both pieces of our state\u2019s history \u2026 I think it honors both our history and where we\u2019ve gone more recently with people coming for tourism and just to enjoy the mountains.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re wondering, is Colorado the only state with two official songs? The answer is no. Several states have more than one state song<\/a>, and if you count anthems, ballads, marches, and honorary songs, New Hampshire and Tennessee have a total of 10 each. New Jersey is the only state in the U.S. without an official state song.<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

know the state has an official song too? Well, two, to be exact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1060,120,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-36781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-arts-entertainment","tag-colorado","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36781"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=36781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}