19th annual Snowshoe Thompson Ski & Snowshoe Celebration

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - John Albert Thompson, a Norwegian immigrant nicknamed Snowshoe Thompson, was the legendary 'Mailman of the Sierras' and a man many consider to be the father of California skiing.

His life will be celebrated in South Lake Tahoe on March 2, 2019, during the 19th annual Snowshoe Thompson Ski & Snowshoe Celebration at the Lake Tahoe Golf Course from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The cost for the day is a $10 donation for adults and kids under 12 are free.

There will be a guided historical tour on the snow at 9:30 a.m. Bring your own snowshoes or cross-country skis (or rent them at the golf course). During the event there will also be a longboard ski demonstration, a Snowshoe Thompson exhibit, music by Richard Blair, the Norway Collection and author/raconteur Frank Tortorich. Bag lunches are available for $10 and the golf course will have a no-host bar set up.

Brandon Wilding of the Snowshoe Thompson Chapter 1827 of E Clampus Vitus will be dedicating a plaque in honor of the man who, between 1856 and 1876, delivered mail between Placerville and Genoa, and later Virginia City.

If interested in lunch, please RSVP so it will be prepared for you. Call Nina at 530.573.8940 or email her at Norskenina@sbcglobal.net.

Despite his nickname, Thompson did not make use of the snowshoes that are native to North America, but rather would travel with what the local people applied that term to - ten-foot (over 3-meter) skis, and a single sturdy pole generally held in both hands at once. He knew this version of cross-country skiing from his native Norway and employed it during the winter as one of the earlier pioneers of the skill in the United States. Thompson delivered the first silver ore to be mined from the Comstock Lode. Later he taught others how to make skis, as well as the basics of their use. Despite his twenty years of service, he was never paid for delivering the mail.

Thompson typically made the eastward trip in three days, and the return trip in two days. Thompson carried no blanket and no gun; he claimed he was never lost even in blizzards.

Thompson usually traveled the route known as "Johnson's Cutoff", a pathway first marked by John Calhoun Johnson, an early explorer and first man to deliver mail over the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Today this approximates the route of U.S. Route 50 as it winds its way from Placerville, California to South Lake Tahoe.

From 1868 to 1872 Thompson served on the Board of Supervisors of Alpine County and was a delegate to the Republican State Convention in Sacramento in 1871.

Snowshoe Thompson died of appendicitis which developed into pneumonia on May 15, 1876. His grave can be seen in Genoa, Nevada.