When she was a child growing up in Mendota Heights, Ann Bancroft went on camping and canoe trips
with her father in northern Minnesota, read about an Antarctica expedition and dreamed about becoming
an explorer herself some day. When she was 8, she led small winter camping trips in her back yard.
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Ann Bancroft donated this anorak she wore on her dogsled trip in 1986. Left to right at the North Pole are Bancroft, Brent Boddy, Will Steger, Paul Schurke, Geoff Carroll and Richard Weber.
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In 1986, she achieved fame as the first woman to reach the North Pole via dogsleds on the
expedition led by Will Steger and Paul Schurke. In 1992, she climbed Mt. McKinley in Alaska and,
in 1993, she led an American women's expedition to the South Pole.
On Feb. 16, 2001, she made history again when she and Norwegian Liv Arnesen completed their nearly 2,400-mile
ski trip across Antarctica pulling 250-pound sleds of supplies.
Before leaving for the South Pole in late Fall 2000, she donated to the Minnesota Historical Society five
boxes of clothing and equipment, a pair of skis and a custom-made sleeping bag from her famous
1986 expedition to the North Pole.
Some of the objects traveled with her to show-and-tell
classroom visits and lectures. "For me, these were the tools I used for showing the story, but I don't do the North Pole story very much any more."
The Society seemed the most logical place to receive her materials, she said. "We were from
Minnesota. Minnesotans mapped out the trip, helped pay for it and supply it and they looked out
for us while we were gone."
"The Bancroft collection represents a significant addition to the Society's holdings," says
curator Adam Scher. "Ann's remarkable achievements as an explorer and educator have inspired young people throughout the world." Her donations, along with equipment and clothing donated earlier by Steger, help tell the story of the expedition, but Bancroft brings a special perspective. "Ann is one of a handful of women in the world who do this sort of thing"
Some objects, such as a chewed-up dog harness, tell special stories.
The harness had belonged to Critter, lead dog owned by Bob Mantell, one of two men who left
the expedition with injuries. Dogs develop special relationships with their owners, but Critter
was special to everyone. Bancroft helped care for Critter after Mantell left.
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| Explorer Ann Bancroft at her farm home with the custom-made sleeping bag, skis and five boxes of gear
she donated to the Minnesota Historical Society last fall. |
Without his master, however, Critter's spirit was broken. He became sick, and other dogs began
to fight with him as he weakened. In their account of the trip, Steger and Schurke said his death
was emotional for everyone. "Thirty miles from the Pole we had lost a special friend," they wrote.
"Grief over his death was compounded by thoughts of the impact this would have on Mantell, who had
lost his shot at the Pole and now his trail companion."
Bancroft saved Critter's harness, carried it to the North Pole and offered it to Mantell after
the trip. He found it too hard to accept the gift, which showed evidence of the dog fights after his
departure.
Bancroft and five of the seven men who began the trip reached the North Pole, and their
experiments made her later expeditions possible. Their clothing and the sleeping bag, sewn by
Minnesotans, contained material from Minnesota companies who wanted to test their durability in
extreme conditions.
Artifacts, like these objects, tell of conditions so extreme that Bancroft, a 5-foot-4, 120-pound
woman, consumed more than 6,000 calories a day on polar expeditions. "I hate being cold," Bancroft
said with a smile, "but I enjoy being in a cold place."
Her South Pole trips added electronics to materials she tested. Students from around the world
sent and received messages from the explorers at the web site www.yourexpedition.com.
When not touring and exploring, Bancroft lives on a farm at Scandia, Minn., where she drives a tractor and says she enjoys getting her hands dirty.
The symbolic importance of Bancroft's story, she says, comes in celebrating the fact that girls
can follow their dreams, as she has done. As a child, she was diagnosed with dyslexia and has
worked with other celebrities to call attention to learning differences, and she has created the
Bancroft Foundation to celebrate the achievements of women and girls.
Read more about Ann Bancroft's activities at www.yourexpedition.com and
read about the North Pole expedition in North to the Pole by Will Steger and Paul Schurke (New York: Times Books, 1987).
View information about other unusual artifacts held by the Minnesota Historical Society,
including a Minneapolis Moline farm tractor.
