Songfacts®:

• According to the 1987 book State Names, Seals, Flags, and Symbols A Historical Guide, by Benjamin F. Shearer and Barbara S. Shearer, "Where The Columbines Grow" was declared the Colorado State Song in 1915.
  
  Written by A.J.Fynn, it was actually so adopted on May 8 of that year, but in 2007 it was augmented by John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High."
  
  The Rocky Mountain Columbine is the official State Flower of Colorado.
• Arthur J. Fynn was born in New York in 1857 but relocated to Denver in 1889; in 1898 he joined the faculty of Colorado University.
  
  He is said to have been inspired to write the song while traveling by horse and wagon to visit Indian tribes in the San Luis Valley, during which he came upon Schinzel Flats, resplendent in the blossoming flowers. He didn't write it until many years later though, in 1909, publishing the sheet music himself in 1911. He dedicated it to the Colorado Pioneers.
• Because it does not contain the word Colorado in the lyrics, this was not universally popular as State Song, and the year after it was so adopted, an attempt was made to replace it with "The Skies Are Blue In Colorado." Further attempts were likewise unsuccessful. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 3