Tennessee Ernie Ford - Snowshoe Tompson

John Albert Thompson, also known as Snowshoe Thompson, never actually used snowshoes. As the Gold Rush was taking off in Northern California and correspondence between California and the Nevada boomtowns of Genoa and Virginia City had become essential, businessmen and prospectors were looking for a mailman who was willing to make the winter trek across the mountains. Enter Snowshoe Thompson.
In 1852, when California was just two years old, Thompson began working for Thomas Knott, who owned a store in Placerville. While working in the store, Knott offered Thompson $2 to take mail and messages to his sawmill in Genoa, 90 miles to the east over the snow-covered Sierra Nevada. Instead of using snowshoes, Thompson built 10-foot cross country skis that weighed 25 pounds to traverse the dangerous terrain. They were the first skis anyone had ever seen in the region and, just like that, skiing in Northern California was born.

Later in 1855, Thompson read an article in the Sacramento Union titled People Lost to the World: Uncle Sam Needs Carrier. Past mail carriers had difficulty traversing the snowy mountains and “Uncle Sam” was offering a lucrative contract of $14,000 a year for anyone to take the job. It took a specific specimen to be able to accomplish the task. At six feet, 185 pounds, the sturdy Thompson was able to carry the 100 pound load of mail and ore while simultaneously controlling his massive skis.

For the next 20 years, Snowshoe Thompson spent his life traversing the snowy Sierra Nevada delivering mail. In sunny skies or whiteout blizzard, he always delivered. He cross-country skied using his Norwegian skis and a single sturdy pole held with both hands at once. He traveled the “Johnson’s Cutoff” route, which would roughly equate to Highway 50 from Placerville to South Lake Tahoe today, and claimed he never got lost, even in a blizzard. He had quickly memorized the route and would use stars and rock formations to continue his journey in the dark of night.
“I was never lost,” Thompson told Territorial Enterprise journalist Dan De Quille. “There is no danger of getting lost in a narrow range of mountains like the Sierra, if a man has his wits about him.”

Thompson traversed through the mountains wearing a simple Mackinaw jacket and a wide brimmed hat. He carried just matches, some beef jerky, crackers and biscuits, and never had a blanket, gun or compass. By smearing charcoal on his face, he was able to avoid snow blindness.
During the silver boom in Virginia City, which at the time was the wealthiest town in the country, Thompson would transport ore across the mountains for investors in California. In the wintertime, he became famous as the man that connected the people across the mighty Sierra Nevada.

With his many years spent in the snowy wilderness, Thompson rarely ran into trouble. He never encountered one of the thousands of Grizzly Bears that lived in the area at the time, most likely due to hibernation.