He was known as "Snowshoe Thompson," though he used only a pair of homemade skis. Back in Norway, they were called snowshoes so Thompson, when asked what his invention was his answer was “snowshoes”.

As an adult he was the picture of a Norse Viking: 6 feet tall with a heavy, muscular build, blue eyes, and with blond hair and beard.

In 1851 Thompson migrated to California and settled in Placerville.

As a miner he was unsuccessful, so he took up farming on a ranch on Putah Creek in the Sacramento Valley. His real vocation, however, seemed to be to carry the mail.

Imagine climbing countless flights of stairs for three consecutive days with little rest and a 90-pound pack on your back. That was essentially the level of rigor Carson Valley legend John A. Thompson endured on each of his 90-mile expeditions over the Sierra Nevada Mountains for nearly 20 years.

Thompson got the idea for mail delivery in 1855 from a notice in the Sacramento Union that a mail carrier was needed to pick up and deliver at Placerville and Genoa during the winter months.

Genoa was in Nevada about 90 miles east of Placerville. The carrier would be required to cross the Sierra Nevada mountains in winter. The stage road between the two towns had not yet been built, and the path of the wagon road across Johnson's Cutoff was annually obliterated by the winter snow. Delivery would be on foot and navigation by instinct.

Not surprisingly, no one applied for the job at first. The original contract had been let to Maj. George Chopenning in 1851, but he had given up the route as too difficult and unprofitable.

Nevertheless, Thompson was interested. With skis, the route in winter would be far less daunting.

As a boy in Norway, Thompson had been virtually raised on skis, and he had adjusted to the polar climate. As there were no skis in California at the time, Thompson made his own from two 10-foot valley oak staves cut 4 inches wide with bootstraps in the center. He also cut a 10-foot pole to use for balance, direction, and braking.

After practicing on the hills outside of Placerville and putting on an awesome exhibition of winter skiing for the townsfolk, Thompson got the job as winter mail carrier. In January 1856 Snowshoe Thompson set off on his first winter mail run across the Sierra Nevada.

Thompson carried a mail sack on his back. He carried no weapon because it would add to the weight he had to carry. He wore a jacket for warmth, and the little food he would eat on the run was crammed into the jacket's pockets.

Placerville gamblers gave odds that Thompson would not make it back alive, but five days after he left he returned from Genoa carrying the mail. It was an awesome accomplishment, and "Snowshoe" would do it again and again during the winter months.

He had neither map nor compass, and he carried no blanket. He would sleep in caves or tree-root caverns on pine-needle beds and build a fire for his feet. If a deserted cabin was found along the way he would use it. He expected to be confronted by bears and menaced by wolves. He would encounter snow drifts of 30 to 50 feet, and if there was a blizzard, he could be blinded by the snow. Trees and cliffs posed particular dangers for travelers on skis.

His handshake was a contract. Even after the Placerville-Genoa road was open for all-year traffic, Thompson carried the mail when the road was blocked by snow drifts.

Snowshoe Thompson didn’t wear the typical clothes we would wear if we went skiing today, he simply wore a thick flannel jacket, wide-rimmed hat pants, and boots. To keep from going snow-blind he rubbed charcoal under his eyes like a football player.

The food he took with him was simple survival food, dried sausage, beef jerky, crackers, and biscuits.

Pretty soon he proved himself to be quite the mailman and quickly became sort of a celebrity which he liked a lot, he loved helping out his community and took his job very seriously.

He left at the same time on his route so that the people would be expecting the mail. People would leave their homes and look up at Genoa Peak to watch the Viking mailman fly down the mountain.