More than 150 years ago, a man trekked 90 miles across the snowy Sierra Nevada to deliver mail for 20 years, but the federal government never paid him. Locals today haven’t forgotten.
That man was John “Snowshoe” Thompson, a pioneer and skier who is considered a living legend among Northern Nevadans but is lesser known in the south. Plaques and statues dot California and Northern Nevada, commemorating his service, and groups frequently retrace his steps for recreation challenges.
From 1856 until his death in 1876, Thompson traversed the mountains between Placerville, California, to Genoa, a small town east of Lake Tahoe, to deliver mail during the impassable winters.
The Norwegian had immigrated to the U.S. when he was 10 years old with his mother in 1837. After his mother died, he followed the Gold Rush to California and eventually settled in Putah Creek near Placerville.
In 1856, Genoa faced particularly heavy winter storms. The postal service sought someone who could deliver mail to the isolated community.
Thompson applied for the job and completed his first trek that winter, navigating through blizzards between the two municipalities, which are about 80 miles apart by car today.
He wore homemade snowshoes that were 10-feet long and weighed 25 pounds, more like skis with upturned runners in the front, according to a 2014 Review-Journal report.
Ahead of his first trip, people gathered in Placerville to watch him set off, with few optimistic he would make it over the 7,500-foot passes. One voice had called out, “Good luck, Snowshoe Thompson,” according to the Historical Marker Database.
For 20 years, he carried the mail in a backpack, which sometimes weighed as much as 100 pounds, and made the 90-mile trip twice a month during winter, according to historian Kim Harris, who wrote a story on him for Visit Carson Valley.
He also carried medicine, clothes and pots and pans, but he didn’t carry a gun because it was too heavy. It took him three days to reach Genoa from Placerville and two days to return.
Thompson successfully rescued men who had been trapped in the mountains by the winter conditions over the years. On one occasion he encountered wolves, but they didn’t attack him.
That first winter, he received $23.39 from people who paid $1 a letter, according to the 2014 Review-Journal report. The following year he made $56.83 privately from individuals, but he still did not have a government contract with the postal service.
In 1859 Thompson bought land in Diamond Valley, California, to take up ranching. He married a Genoa resident, and they had one child, who died of diphtheria at 11 years old in 1878, according to Harris.
He was active in the community and joined the Genoa Rangers, fighting against the Indigenous Paiute people in the Pyramid Lake Paiute Uprising of 1860 and was one of few rangers to survive.
By 1869, Thompson still hadn’t been paid by the federal government. The Nevada Legislature asked Congress to pay him $6,000 for three years of work, but to no avail. He traveled to Washington D.C. to ask in person in 1872, but he again was unsuccessful.
Besides delivering Northern Nevadans’ mail for years, he was credited as the first man to bring skiing to the Sierra Nevada and is considered the father of California skiing, according to the 2014 Review-Journal report.
For years, Nevadans have called on USPS to honor his service with a commemorative stamp, but efforts have been unsuccessful.
Those efforts continue today. A Nevada legislator is pushing a bill in the 2025 Legislature urging the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee and the Postmaster General of the U.S. Postal Service to create a postage-stamp commemorating Thompson.
Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.