Through sleet or snow, the mail must go..

Happy Birthday, John. You were quite a guy!

John Thompson was born in Tinn ( Telemark County) Norway April 30th, 1827. Actually, John is his American name, he was born Jon Torstein Rui in Norway. His father died when he was two years old. When he was 10, the family moved to America, where he grew to be the picture of a Norse Viking: 6 feet tall with a heavy, muscular build, blue eyes, and with blond hair and beard.

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The immigrants settled on a farm in Illinois, moving later to Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin, finally deciding on California to settle. It was just 3 years after gold had been discovered, and the mountains were crawling with recent arrivals. In 1851, Thompson migrated to California and settled in Hangtown (Placerville), mining in Coon Hollow and at Kelsey's Diggings, but, as a miner, he was unsuccessful. Four years later, Thompson noticed an ad in the Sacramento Union which read: "People lost to the world. Uncle Sam needs mail carrier." He decided to give it a try. During the summers, Thompson drove stages and delivered mail and supplies to remote mining camps. By the mid-1850’s, mail was being transported over the Sierra Nevada by horseback and mule and later by wagon. The mail and supplies were carried by wagons pulled by horses until the snows closed the mountain passes and deliveries were stopped for the long winters. All contact with the Eastern US ceased.

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Struck by a bolt of inspiration, Thompson saw a need for continuing the deliveries to these isolated people. He knew he could ski over the mountainous country. Using his skiing skills, he quickly grabbed an ax and chopped down an oak tree, and before long, had carved a pair of skis, each weighing over 12 pounds. These primitive skis were cumbersome, but he was strong and used to heavy physical exertion. His route took him 90 miles over snowdrifts up to 50 feet high and through blizzards with up to 80 mile per hour winds, delivering mail to those living in isolation. His mail sack often weighed up to 100 pounds: carrying medicine, emergency supplies, clothing, books, tools, pots and pans. He was the sole link between California and the Atlantic states during the long winter months..

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By day, he was guided by the trees and the rocks, for Thompson was a student of the mountains. He had a sixth sense about where he was, and never got lost. During the night, he looked up to the stars sliding over the drifts with his long wooden skis, pushing himself along with a single wood pole on ten-foot skis, this single, sturdy pole generally held in both hands . He knew this version of cross-country skiing from his native Norway. At nights, he built a large fire, lay on a bed of pine boughs and used his mail sack for a pillow. "He would stretch himself upon this fragrant couch," wrote Hubert Howe Bancroft, a west coast historian, "and with his feet to the blaze and his face to the stars slept soundly and safely."John carried the mail and supplies over the snowy Sierras for 20 winters. Typically, he covered the 90 mile one-way trip in about 3 days, traveling during the day as well as at night from Placerville to Mormon Station, Utah (Nevada's first town, later called Genoa when Nevada became a state). ------------------------------------------ Legend has it that he saved the lives of seven people who were snowbound in mountain cabins. In 1869 the completion of the transcontinental railroad put him out of the mail delivery business, but he continued to carry packages and express for private parties. Retiring from the mail delivery business, Thompson sought to obtain a small pension for his 20-years of services, services that he had provided for free to the residents of Tahoe and Carson Valley, the sum of $6000. Although everyone seemed to support his request, he never received one red cent. Thompson was never paid for his services delivering the United States Mail.

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Thompson's arduous life took its toll. Snowshoe Thompson died of appendicitis which developed into pneumonia on May 15, 1876, when he died and was buried in the cemetery in Genoa, Nevada. 90 miles over mountains on skis...No planes, delivery trucks....Three day delivery for 20 years!

No pension?...Thank you, John! Happy Birthday!