‘A Mailman on Skis’

JOHN THOMPSON had always liked snow. He didn’t care how deep the drifts were, for he had been born in the snowy, far-off country of Norway. Even after his family moved to America, John looked forward to snowy winters.

When he was 22, some men in California discovered gold! John moved west, to the mountainous gold-country town of Placerville.

He tried mining, without much luck.

“Maybe I just wasn’t cut out to be a gold miner,” he decided. “But I want to stay in these California mountains.”

A newspaper ad in January 1856 said: “People lost to the world. Uncle Sam needs mail carrier.”

In winter, no one delivered mail the 90 miles between Placerville and Mormon Station, Nevada. Wagons and horses couldn’t make it over the snow-covered Sierra Nevadas.

“If I can be that mailman,” John thought, “I’m sure I can get through!”

John remembered the “snow skates” used in Norway. He split the trunk of a green oak tree into strips 4 inches wide and 10 feet long. Then he made each strip turn up in front by soaking the wood and pulling the front of the board upward until it dried in that position. (Today we would call such “snow skates” skis.)

His snow skates were heavy – about 25 pounds. But John was big and strong, 6 feet tall and in good health. He had blond hair, a handsome beard, fair skin and blue eyes.

No one in Placerville had seen skis before. People laughed and said, “He’ll kill himself, coming downhill so fast.” John didn’t listen. He applied for the job.

In January 1856, with a 70-pound mail sack on his back, he made his first 90-mile journey between Placerville and Mormon Station. Handfuls of food were crammed in his pockets.

For water, he’d drink melted snow.

Never lost, he carried neither a map nor a compass. “I don’t need a blanket,” he said. “Exercise will keep me warm. I can always build a campfire.”

Nobody believed John could make the trip to Nevada with his strange snow skates. As he left town, someone called, “Good luck, Snowshoe Thompson.” Now he had a nickname.

Five days after leaving Placerville, Thompson returned with the mail from Mormon Station. He had covered 180 snowy, mountainous miles.

Twice a month, in all weather, Snowshoe Thompson completed his mail route – three days from Placerville to Mormon Station (later renamed Genoa), and two days for the return trip.

Although wolves, mountain lions and bears roamed his route, he never carried a gun, for its weight would have forced him to leave some letters or packages behind.

The mountain people depended upon Snowshoe Thompson to bring their mail, medicine, clothing, pots and pans, books and tools. In 1858, he hauled endless loads of newsprint and type for Nevada’s first newspaper, the Territorial Enterprise.

A year later, in 1859, miners had trouble getting rid of an ugly blue rock that mixed with their gold dust. Should they throw it away or was it worth something?

Thompson took samples to Sacramento to be examined. People were stunned to learn that the ugly blue rock was silver ore! A new stampede of miners followed.

There is no record that Snowshoe Thompson was ever paid for his 20 winters of work. At the age of 49, he died of pneumonia.

That year, 1876, editor Dan De Quille described Snowshoe Thompson in the Territorial Enterprise: “His eyes was bright as that of a hawk, his cheeks were ruddy, his frame muscular. His face had the look of repose, and he had that calmness of manner, which are the result of perfect self reliance.”

This story will be on The Times’ website at latimes.com/kids.