Bancroft is an

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, su ...

in Portage County,

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population is 535. It is included in the

Stevens Point Stevens Point is the county seat of Portage County, Wisconsin, United States. The city was incorporated in 1858. Its 2020 population of 25,666 makes it the largest city in the county. Stevens Point forms the core of the United States Census Bur ...

Micropolitan Statistical Area.

History

Bancroft was named for Warren Gamaliel Bancroft, who served in the 42nd Wisconsin Regiment during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...

and later served as pastor of the Oshkosh Methodist Church. Bancroft was the name sake of Warren Gamaliel Bancroft Winnipeg Harding, who is better known as Warren G. Harding—the 29th president of the United States. A

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

in the community was opened on May 17, 1876.

Geography

Bancroft is located in central Wisconsin approximately 10 miles south of

Plover Plovers ( , ) are a widely distributed group of wading birds belonging to the subfamily Charadriinae. Description There are about 66 species in the subfamily, most of them called "plover" or " dotterel". The closely related lapwing su ...

and approximately five miles north of Plainfield. Bancroft rests on Portage County Road W just to the east of Interstate 39 / U.S. Highway 51, at exit 143. (Lat: 44° 18' 35.0", Lon: -89° 30' 49.7"). Bancroft is the seat for the Town of Pine Grove. Bancroft has an area of ; of this is land, and is water. The geography of Bancroft is mostly flat. There are, however, two interesting bluffs that rise prominently above the otherwise level plains. One was a large bluff, commonly referred to as Mosquito Bluff, that runs in an East-West direction. Mosquito Bluff is now separated into two large hills by Harding Road. The other prominent feature is known as The Ledge, which runs towards the North-East and is visible from I-39. This Bluff has gone by many names (Lover's Leap, Hellfire Hill, High Rock, Gulliver's Stool) but is most commonly known as The Ledge. At the top of The Ledge is an

ichnite A fossil track or ichnite (Greek "''ιχνιον''" (''ichnion'') – a track, trace or footstep) is a fossilized footprint. This is a type of trace fossil. A fossil trackway is a sequence of fossil tracks left by a single organism. Over the year ...

rock that has preserved traces of the passage of

Climactichnites ''Climactichnites'' is an enigmatic, Cambrian fossil formed on or within sandy tidal flats around . It has been interpreted in many different ways in the past, but is now thought to be a trace fossil of a slug-like organism that moved by crawling ...

Notes

{{authority control Census-designated places in Wisconsin Census-designated places in Portage County, Wisconsin