Welcome to the American Story. Stories about what it is that makes America beautiful.

Heartbreaking, funny, inspiring, and endlessly interesting.

This is Chris Flannery with the Clermont Institute.

I call this one,

Purple Mountain Majesties.

Pike's Peak, sometimes called America's Mountain sits just west of Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Mountaineers refer to Pike's Peak as a 14er, a mountain peak with an elevation above 14,000 feet

that doesn't break into the rare thin air of 15,000 feet and above.

There are 9614ers in the United States. 53 of them are in Colorado. If you're a

peak bagger, Pike's Peak is on your list.

When you visit Pikes Peak and you should, you'll find various modes of ascent.

Depending on the weather and it is important to realize in advance that at Pike's Peak everything depends on the weather.

You can cycle or drive up Pike's Peak Highway, you can hike up the popular bar trail, you can run up and back down in the annual Pikes Peak Marathon.

Guided tours by jeep or bus are available.

Or you might take the Pikes Peak Cog Rail. by Jeep or bus are available.

Or you might take the Pike's Peak-Cog Railway.

It's been in operation since the summer of 1891.

Back then, your only options up the mountain

were by foot rail or carriage.

In the summer of 1893, Wellesley professor of English literature and Catherine Lee Bates and some friends opted to take a carriage up the mountain.

Bates was in Colorado to teach English at a summer school in Colorado Springs.

Later she recalled,

...