Caroline Bancroft (1900-1985) was a journalist and performed in the Ziegfeld Follies. She is known for the books and booklets that she wrote about Colorado's history and its pioneers. In 1990, she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame.
Bancroft was born in Denver, Colorado on September 11, 1900 to an established, "upper crust" family and was a third-generation Coloradan. Her parents were Ethel Force Norton, a socialite from Troy, New York, and George Jarvis Bancroft, a Coloradan who graduated in 1895 from Stanford University. He was in the school's first graduating class with future president Herbert Hoover. Dr. Frederick J. Bancroft, her grandfather, was a Colorado pioneer and surgeon. In 1879 he was co-founder and first president of the Colorado Historical Society, originally called the State Historical and National History Society of Colorado. He served as president for 17 years. The 13,000 foot Mount Bancroft is named for him, below which is Lake Caroline, which is named for her.
George's wealth ebbed and flowed as he explored mining enterprises in Mexico and the western United States. Ethel rented out the second floor of their home at 1081 Downing Street to help support her two daughters, Caroline and Peggy, who was born in 1905. For entertainment, Caroline liked to ride horses that the family kept at a Corona Street livery or at the family's 2,500 acre summer home in Bear Creek Canyon. The ranch and summer home, purchased by Frederick Bancroft, were located between Kittredge and Evergreen. In 1923, the buildings were donated to the Evergreen Conference Historic District. She also like to travel to her father's Clover Knoll Farm by Barnum trolley.
Bancroft received her Bachelor of Arts from Smith College and attended the University of Denver where she attained a master's degree in history. Central City, Colorado was the subject of her master's thesis.