Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1876-06-10
Snow Shoe Thompson.

SAAO" Sl1OS AAOAAPSOhs
The Carson (Nevada) Appeal has
some particulars in regard to the his
tory of John A. Thompson, better
known as Snow-shoe Thompson, whose
death has just been announced. The
comparison to the st. Bernard dog is
a quaint one, to say the least. The
| Appeal says Thompson was born
at Upper Tins, Prestijeld, Norway, IN
1927. His first trip across the Sierra
was made in January, 1865. He went
from Placerville to Geona, distance
of ninety miles, carrying the mail-bags
strapped upon his back, and gliding
over fields of snow from 80 to so feet
in depth, his long Norwegian snow
shoes bearing him safely and swiftly
upon the surface of the snow. He per-
formed this service during the sever
est winter weather for years. The
mail-bags he carried weighed from six
ty to seventy pounds. In his noun
tain travels he has saved many lives.
Compared with other men in SHOWS
and snow storms, he was as much su-
perior as the Saint Bernard is to the
ordinary dog He was never lost,
though the storm was pitiless and
binding, he never strayed from his
straight path. The trip from Geona
to Placerville he made easily in two
days in the stormiest weather. He
slept wherever night overlook him.
He never went armed, because he new
er wanted to be incumbered by weight.
He was proof against cold, never hav-
ing had his feet or fingers frozen. He
has stated that he was never fright
ened but once, and that was when he
was confronted by pack of hungry
wolves. But he kept up his steady
march, paying no heed to them, and
they did not modest him. But these
fatiguing trips, he stated lately, had
broken his constitution. He was in
Carson on the 9th of last February,
and called at the Appeal Office. He
had them determined to ask Congress
to grant him some compensation for
carrying the mails. But he never re-
ceived any, and now he has passed
over to the other shore where he will
need none. Possessed of herculean
strength, with nerves of steel and an.
iron will, and a heart susceptible of
the kindest feelings, he was at once the
beau ideal of strong manhood.
The Virginia City Enterprise speaks
affectionately of the old man, saying:
ITO the ordinary man, who is famil-
lar with the peril, there is nothing
much more terrible than a winters
snow storm in the Sierras People
unfamiliar with the mountains can
never realize what tremendous forces
are at work when Southwestern with
accompanying snow breaks upon the
hills. But those terrors seemed only
fascinations to Thompson. Into the
fercest storm he would disappear as
though its wild spirits-which were
rocking the pine and heaping up the
snows-were simply in accord with
his own tremendous vitality, and as
though from them there was nothing
to fear. All the turmoil of midnight
tempest could never disconcert him
or cause him to wander from his
path. He knew the trees and the
sun by day and the watching stars
by night, and when they were shut
out he would quietly go to sleep until
daylight appeared. He bore heav-
ier burden than ever Roman soldiers
bent under; he made marches that no
Roman soldiers would ever have un-
dertaken, and he never failed. He.
found the Sierras when little was
known of their passes, and when, for
months in the year, they rose up like