Friday, September 27, 2024
Snowshoe Thompson - The Mailman of the Sierra
“Good Luck Snowshoe Thompson!” was the cry as John A. Thompson left Hangtown (or Placerville as it was officially known) that cold winter day in 1856 on homemade snowshoes (skis as we call them today). True to the American West, no person of notoriety lasted very long without having a nickname bestowed upon them. So it was upon this day, the man who would save the Town of Genoa 75 miles away in Utah Territory, was so christened.
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He was even featured in a Bonanza comic book.
ReplyDeleteOne of the best monuments to a man was at the summit of 8,574' Carson Pass. It was a ten foot granite spire with a broken tip. The plaque below it read:
ReplyDeletehttps://sst-ecv.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/20170806_104901-e1509831157998-scaled.jpg
I was disappointed to read the spire has since been vandalized.
I remember seeing that marker.
DeleteThe first time I read it I got goose bumps.
DeleteBut then, I was on the summit of Carson Pass at the time. That might have had something to do with it, being near where Snowshoe had passed so many times.
He went through blizzards and freezing conditions, packs of wolves, saved stranded people and all that came with it to die in his bed.. You just never know
ReplyDeleteJD
His snowshoes were what we call skis; long ones if I recall from my time in that area
ReplyDeleteLongboards, Baby!
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpIDS0fZ4_g