John A. “Snowshoe Thompson” Pioneer Mail Carrier of the Sierra
Frank Tortorich
301 pages 2015
There are many heroes of the Sierra crossing, all with compelling stories of their treks. Most of those, however, crossed only once. “Snowshoe” Thompson crossed many times and although carrying the mail is pretty prosaic activity, Snowshoe turned his travels into heroism with his many adventures and the stories of what carried for people. John A. “Snowshoe Thompson” Pioneer Mail Carrier of the Sierra will give you a good introduction to the man and if you aer ambitious you can use chapter eleven to go off in search of all the memorials to Snowshoe Thompson that exist.
One may wonder why the Heirloom is carrying a book review of Mr. Thompson since his travels were not over Donner Summit. As you can see from the story in this issue on pages 11 and 12 Mr. Thompson did spend a winter on Donner Summit and too, Mr. Thompson’s travels are the subject of this month’s historical reprise by the historyexp.org people (See pages 22 and 23) of his route. These are the same extreme athletes who did the reprises of the Forlorn Hope and the Donner Party Rescue Expeditions in 2020 and 2022. The Heirloom carried those stories so we have a connection. Mr. Thompson is also an interesting story.
Mail delivery in the middle of the 19th Century came in many ways: by ship, freight wagons and stagecoaches, Pony Express, telegraph, and the railroad. Snowshoe has a place in the list too. For years he carried mail over the Sierra where or when other methods were not viable.
Snowshoe was born in Norway in 1827. He and his mother emigrated to the U.S. in 1837. There are a lot of unknowns about mother and son and the rest of the family, which came later to the U.S., after it came to America and when their l ast name was Americanized from Torsteinsson.
In 1851 Snowshoe headed west with his brother to the Gold Rush maybe with milk cows to sell. Here again there is almost no information about preparation for the cross country travel or how they got to California. There’s not even information about what happened to the cows. Then there’s very little about how he supported himself during his first few years in California.
Thompson did try searching for gold but that didn’t work out. In 1855 Thompson read an article in a Sacramento paper ruing the fact that no one had stepped forward to deliver mail over the Sierra. Thompson took the job.
Exactly what Snowshoe’s skis looked like is unknown because various descriptions exist and many museums have purported pairs of his skis. Descriptions say the lengths were from five to ten feet long, four to six inches wide, one and a half inches thick and weighing as much as twenty-five pounds. What stamina the man must have had to maneuver those things whatever their exact dimensions. There was more lack of clarity about his route or routes from Placerville to Genoa, how much he was paid or even whether he was ever paid, how often he was contracted to carry mail, or even for whom he ultimately worked. We do know that the first mail he carried was in January of 1856.
Carrying mail over the Sierra in winter was fraught. A newspaper article noting that Thompson was carrying the mail also noted that two men who crossed the Sierra the month before ran into trouble in the deep snows. One man’s feet froze. The other man and the animals simply disappeared.
There are many stories about Snowshoe’s Sierra crossings. In one he arrived at a wilderness cabin after traveling a couple of days from Placerville. He found a man with frozen feet who had been there several days. Snowshoe made a fire, gathered firewood, and made the man comfortable. Then he took off for Genoa traveling all night. There he enlisted the help of six men. They made some skis and headed back to the cabin. There they constructed a sled and brought the man to Genoa. Unfortunately the man’s feet had to be amputated but there was no chloroform. Snowshoe got on his skis and went back over the Sierra to Sacramento for the chloroform. It was estimated he’d traveled four hundred miles to help the man.
The book tells of other adventures in the Paiute War, exploring Lake Tahoe, and taking Comstock ore samples to Placerville for example.
Besides carrying mail in winter on his back Snowshoe also carried freight and passengers in wagons. He bought a farm where he grew oats and barley.
The book gives the reader a lot about Snowshoe Thompson and one comes away from the book with a deep appreciation for Thompson’s heroism and stamina. There are many footnotes both numbered and asterisked which give explanations and references, for example for the poem here. There is a set of appendices which give more explanations and pictures to illustrate the text.
There are also many many excerpts from newspapers and other sources which become tedious and sometimes repetitive. They could have categorized and summarized. For example in the chapter on plaques, monuments, resolutions and celebrations, the author lists many recognitions of Snowshoe Thompson starting in 1926 and going to the present over sixty pages. A better strategy would have been to summarize the collection.
Instead of wearing the ordinary snow shoes, the mail carrier uses long
wooden skates, common in the north of Europe. These skates are five or six
feet in length, turning up in the front like a sleigh runner; the foot is fastened
to the board by a leather band, with a ridge under the hallow of the boot,
which prevents it from slipping back. Thus prepared with a strong pole to
guide him, he slips along over the Archives snow with astonishing speed;
on the down grade he rests himself Partially on the pole, and slides down
on his sled as swiftly as a school boy can on his sled.
Weekly Calaveras Chronicle 2/15/62
Mr. Thompson was a man of splendid physique, standing six feet pounds. His features were large, but tall in stocking feet, and weighing 180 regular and handsome. He had blond hair and beard, and fair skin and blue eyes of his Scandinavian ancestors; and looked a true descendant of a sea- roving Northman of old. Although he spoke English as well as a native born American, one would not have been much surprised to have heard him break forth in the old Norse.... His frame muscular and his tout ensemble that of a hardy mountaineer… His face wore that aspect of repose, and he had that calmness of manner, which are a result of perfect self-reliance.
Overland Monthly 10/86
Dan De Quille
This poem commemorating the extraordinary four hundred mile travels of Snowshoe Thompson to rescue a man he found freezing in a cabin and his trek to get chloroform to amputate his legs.
The Pony Express May, 1952
Down Genoa's Peak Descending
(Snow Shoe Thomsen brings Chloroform)
Flying Eagle of the Fifties
Soaring Bird man of the West
Sailing through the virgin forest.
Scaling, high, Sierra's crest.
Down Genoa's Peak descending.
‘Round the crags, and ‘tween the pine.
Clouds of snow. like smoking engines.
Trailing in the serpentine
"Down! Down! Fast there comes a-falling
Like a streak of lightnine's ray.
Swinging, bending. leaping. swirling.
See the comet wend its way!
"Hail, ye Mormon Saints and Gentiles!
Elzy Knott shut down your mill!
Snow Shoe Thomson! Ho: He's coming!
Sisson's legs will soon be nil.
"Dargett, Chamberlain and Waters,
Chloroform is on the way!
Get your cleavers, saws and cat-gut!
Go to work and save the day!
"Sisson's ends are mortitying.
Thirty days they're frozen stiff!
Doctor Luce, with Pony whiskey
Take your turn at every sniff!
W. F. SKYHAWK-
- Pony Express Histories Series No. 17