September 11, 1900

Caroline Bancroft was born (September 11, 1900) and died (October 8, 1985) in Denver, Colorado. It was more than a birthplace-- Denver was her setting, and her subject. Her family was wealthy, her father was a mining engineer. Her grandfather had founded the Colorado Historical Society. Caroline was a historian, with a BA from Smith College and MA from the University of Denver. After 1928 she was book editor at the Denver Post. She wrote wrote Silver Queen, (1938) a biography of Baby Doe Tabor.This was a long pamphlet, one of a series in that format, all about characters from Colorado history.

Bancroft's book, Gulch of Gold,  a history of Central City, Colorado (1958) at 387 pages, was a more ambitious project: telling the story of the the gold rush there, which started when a prospector found
gold in his pan on May 6, 1859. Bancroft had a summer home  in Central City, and had the advantage of neighbors who remembered stories about that era. This book includes a picture which Bancroft labels "the first pig and the first cat in the region." Actually it is kind of hard to discern the figures she describes in this early photograph.

Caroline Bancroft was herself a part of Colorado history. She is remembered for being high handed, and her eccentricites made great copy. She is said to have been driven to a party, once, wrapped in a shower curtain since her escort's car had dog hair in it. And I love the fact she was a life long friend of her fellow Coloradan, Mary Coyle Chase (who wrote Harvey.)

Most of this info is from the book Women of Consequence: The Colorado Women's Hall of Fame
written by Jeanne Varnell, and M. L. Hanson (1999).