Lights on Peak summit a closely watched tradition

QUESTION: There used to be one light at the top of Pikes Peak. Now there seems to be two. Do you know what the lights are?
- Scott and Susan Patton

ANSWER: The lights are a tradition followed closely by the people down below. There is one light on the north and one on the east, and when a bulb burns out, the telephone almost immediately lights up at the Pikes Peak Highway Ranger Station.

In 1983 a philanthropist donated 18 lights to illuminate the summit. The first night there were hundreds of calls to police and fire departments from people who thought the Summit House was burning down. Then there was a big outcry about “glare” and “light pollution,” and the lights came down.