Bancroft, Caroline

Historic Central City Gold! and Now Glamor! It's Complete Story as Guide and Souvenir [Colorado]

Boulder, Colorado: Johnson Publishing Company, 1974. Ninth Edition.

A mid-century regional history and travel guide documenting Central City, Colorado, tracing its transformation from an 1859 gold-rush boomtown to a preserved historic destination in the Rocky Mountains.

Written by noted Colorado historian Caroline Bancroft, the booklet blends local history, architecture, and tourism, reflecting the growing preservation movement that followed Central City’s designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1961.

Stapled illustrated stiff boards, approximately 5.5 by 8.5 inches. Forty-eight pages, including index. Illustrated with historical black-and-white photographs. The bindings are tight and square. Text clean with light, even age-toning. Minimal shelf handling wear. Presents well.

A concise and accessible Bancroft guide combining gold-rush history, historic preservation advocacy, and travel promotion. These locally issued Colorado booklets were sold to visitors as souvenirs and reference guides and were often heavily used, making clean surviving copies increasingly scarce.

Historical Note: Central City rose rapidly after John Gregory’s 1859 gold discovery, becoming one of Colorado’s most significant early mining centers. By the mid-twentieth century, preservation efforts sought to protect its nineteenth-century buildings and cultural legacy, positioning the town as a heritage destination within easy reach of Denver.

Subjects: Central City Colorado, Colorado Gold Rush, Mining towns, Rocky Mountains history, Historic preservation, Western mining history, American regional history, Western Americana, Travel ephemera, Local history publications,

Item #18113
ISBN: 093347220X

Price: $14.95