Ellen E. Jack 1842
1 book in the catalogue, published 2010.
Ellen E. Jack, known in Colorado as Captain Jack, was an English-born woman who ran businesses in Gunnison country and later lived near Colorado Springs. We publish one book connected to her, a reprint of her autobiography under the title Colorado's Eccentric Captain Jack.
About Ellen E. Jack
The Colorado Springs Gazette reports, citing a Pioneers Museum caption, that Jack was born in England in 1842. She was widowed in 1874 when her husband, Charles Edward Jack, died. Her Bon Ton Hotel on Coney Island burned in 1876, and around 1880 she opened a boarding house and restaurant in Gunnison. The Black Queen Mine near Crested Butte brought her early fame and fortune, along with legal fights.
She later settled on High Drive near Colorado Springs, where she ran a tourist stop and staked mining claims she called Mars. She filed for bankruptcy in 1918 and died in 1921. Her autobiography, The Fate of a Fairy, appeared before her death. The curator Leah Davis Witherow says parts of it are exaggerated, if not wholly fabricated, and that is why we read it as a legend as much as a record.
What the books share
There is one book on record for Ellen Jack, so the theme is a single life told two ways: her own colorful version and the documented one. Both center on the Gunnison country in the early 1880s and on a woman running boarding houses, restaurants and mining claims in a place where few women did. The catalogue lists the book as a 2010 reprint, and its description stresses the wildness of the tale. The Gazette feature shows that her reputation has been argued over for more than a century.
The subjects this author is catalogued under. Open Library record.
Next steps for readers of this author
Testing a legend against the record
Read the autobiography first and jot down the names, places and dates that stand out. Then ask the Crested Butte Museum or the Western Colorado University archives what they hold for those years. Specific questions get better answers from archive staff than a general request does.
Following her to Colorado Springs
Her later years were spent near Colorado Springs, so the Pioneers Museum is the natural stop for that part of the story. Its collections page names the Starsmore Center for Local History as the place to research the archives, so contact the museum before you travel.
Choosing a second Colorado reprint
If her story leaves you wanting more frontier life told by the people who lived it, browse the other reprints in our library. Compare each description with the dates and places you already know, and treat any firsthand memoir as one voice rather than the whole record.
Go deeper
Ellen Jack's life ran through the Gunnison Valley and then the Pikes Peak region, and both areas have local history collections. They are places to check a colorful legend against what the records and objects there say.
Crested Butte Museum
A Gunnison Valley museum. Its collections page says it keeps archives, including personal documents, memoirs and newspapers, plus objects dating back to the 1880s.
Western Colorado University Archives
The Gunnison campus library holds manuscript collections and photographs donated by the Gunnison community. Its page says the archives are open by appointment only.
Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum
The museum's collections page points researchers to the Starsmore Center for Local History and to an online database of its collection.
Good to know
Who was Captain Jack?
What was her autobiography called?
When did she die?
Writers like this one are how the list was built
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