Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh hoi hoi.
Well, hello, hello, hello there, good sir, on this lovely day,
I don't know why I answered likehello what, I don't know what's
.
It must be because we're doing.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Was that a bad Norwegian accent?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I guess so, because it's like an old-timey episode.
Maybe I'm just in mode today.
I was thinking about this rightbefore the call.
I was like man, it's such anice day out and here we are
going to talk about skiing inwinter what the fuck, man.
But here we are.
I tell stories.
It's just how we roll.
Where did you hear aboutSnowshoe Thompson?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I can't.
It was on TV so I can't taketoo much credit.
But then we do our own researchpeople, we don't just
regurgitate.
It was all in the idiot box.
But it's something that it justreally taught me A couple of
these.
I've just heard the topic kindof in passing.
I'm like, okay, I'm going toresearch this name.
But Snowshoe Thompson, who wasborn in the Telemark District in
(01:00):
Norway as John Torstensenruh, Ithink it's, Torstisonru, I
think it's Torstison, torstison,yeah, something like that.
So Snow-Shoe Thompson's a loteasier to say for us uncultured
Americans.
Yes, but quite the story onthis gentleman.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Yeah, there is.
He immigrated to the US at theage of 10.
They settled in Illinois for alittle while and then ended up
in Missouri and Iowa, kind of inthat area.
He adopted John Thompson whenthey immigrated.
But like a lot of people at thetime, I mean I guarantee you
(01:44):
know, if you have lineage thatgoes back generations here in
the US or whatever, there's apretty good chance that your
family's last name was changed.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
you know, yeah, and I did see that he changed it to
his.
After his father died, hismother remarried, and so he
changed it to his stepfather'slast name.
To, yeah, americanize it right.
Yeah, make it easier for us todo an episode yeah, snowshoe
thompson has a ring to it.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
You know what I'm saying?
It's a, it's a thing, yeah,yeah, when we they talk about
snowshoes here, people, uh, it'sjust was the term for skis back
in the day.
I guess they didn't have a wordfor skis yet.
I don't know Something.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
And he carved.
Yeah, essentially they werelike they didn't look like what
we think of as, yeah, assnowshoes.
Now it was like 10-foot longskis, yeah.
So I don't know what theaverage ski is now.
I've only been skiing a coupletimes.
It's not 10 feet.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
That's gigantic, I would it's not 10 feet.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
That's gigantic, I would.
I would think like four feet orsomething.
Yeah, I don't know yeah, that'sa good point, anything about
that good bro oh, and then healso just had a single pole that
he used to both like steer andbreak, which breaking on 10 foot
long wooden planks essentiallydoesn't sound like much fun.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
No, it doesn't.
It kind of made me feel like itwas like how he skied through
these sierra nevadas, which Ihaven't even got touch on yet,
but let's touch on this becausewe're already here.
So he, it reminds me of likehow you would paddle a canoe
with one oar, you know, withone-sided oars, how I, I think
he would do, like as across-country skiing style, like
(03:27):
traditional norwegian skiing,which is why he you know this is
where it comes from he learnedto ski before he moved to the us
and he remembered it and thenso he ended up carving these 10
foot skis out of oak, which isinsane, I thought.
And then, you know, bringingskiing.
He's known as like the personwho brought modern skiing as we
(03:48):
know it, basically to the US.
So that's kind of another funfact about it.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, all the people from Scandinavian countries
would have experienced thatreally before.
He was like I was reallysurprised and that's basically.
Let's see, the demand forgetting mail across the Sierra
Nevada only came out of the goldrush.
So, you know, so many peoplefrom all over went and I mean
(04:14):
this is impassable territoryLike this is not for the faint
of heart and I guess he wouldski 90 miles in three days
carrying an 80 to, you know, 80to 100 pound stack of mail right
and brought no gun, no blanket,like no gear at all, just, uh,
(04:36):
matches to start a fire and thebible and his bible damn, yeah,
yeah, because he moved toCalifornia because of the gold
rush in 1851, this SnowshoeThompson character, and you know
, like everybody else, he hadthe gold fever, you know he
wanted to make it in America.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
You know he had the dream, you know.
So he took off and he went toPlacerville, california.
That's where he was at, that'swhere he was at.
His motivation for carrying themail basically was the fact
that during certain months ofthe year nobody could get their
stuff through to their family,and this was like the lifeline
for people.
There wasn't even telegraphlines in these areas, from what
(05:16):
I understood.
So it was basically like thisyou would give your mail to the
Pony Express or whatever it wasat the time, and then it hit a
stagecoach and then it would goon a train and then it would go
on a steamboat, then back onanother stagecoach just to get
around the Sierra Nevadas, andit could take up to the whole
(05:37):
winter basically to get a letter.
So that's what motivated him tocarve these skis.
Get back to his Norwegian roots,man.
Okay, over here we're talkingserious snowshoe tossing
business, my friend, you know.
So he got back to his roots and, yeah, he did it.
He was skiing over thesemountains with no modern
(05:57):
equipment, often just sleepingon like little beds of grass.
Drinking creek water was common, I guess, and apparently he did
not get dysentery.
I didn't read any stories aboutthat, but I suppose if you're
up in the mountains, though, andyou're drinking direct creek
water from like snow runoff back, then you wouldn't?
There's probably a pretty lowchance of getting sick from it,
(06:18):
wouldn't you think, sort of Idon't know.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, typically, like I think, you get giardia which
is from cows or livestock ingeneral.
Yeah, polluting the water, andso I wouldn't think there are
many chickens up at the top ofthe sea.
And you know what he got paidfor?
His 20 years of service?
No, clue?
Speaker 1 (06:42):
actually no, what is it?
I'm interested.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Nothing.
What that's fucked up.
Yeah, he was continually like.
Local authorities promised topay him, I guess, for years.
Never happened, he never used,he never received a single
dollar in 20 years, he'd neversigned a contract.
And then he attempted to charge, eventually a dollar for every
(07:07):
letter, but people refused topay him but still wanted their
mail delivered, of course, andtried to get it, even through DC
and all this.
So, yeah, he did all this likerisking his life.
Oh yeah, pretty much every trip.
You know what I mean, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Saving people too.
Yeah, absolutely nothing.
And he was saving people outthere too he was.
There were some stories aboutit.
I mean he, oh right, yeah, hehad.
There's a couple stories.
Let me break some of these down.
Break it down Because there'ssome more to it than just that
he delivered the mail.
This guy was nuts.
(07:45):
There's a story of his wolfencounter in 1857.
In the winter of 1857, whiletraversing Hope Valley south of
Lake Tahoe, thompson encounteredsix large timber wolves
feasting on a carcass.
As he approached, the wolveslined up and held him.
Despite the tension, thompsoncontinued skiing past them and
they ultimately returned totheir meal without pursuing him.
He later described this as theonly time he felt truly
(08:11):
frightened during his mountaintravels.
Snowshoe Thompson Okay, youknow.
So there's something.
He has another one where, in1856, so I'm backtracking here,
I guess a bit Thompsondiscovered the prospect of James
Sisson Snowbound for 12 dayswith a severe frostbite.
So he reckoned and then heunderstood that this guy was in
serious trouble.
So he stopped his mail routehere.
(08:31):
He ended up skiing back toGenoa, which is where he had
just delivered some mailpreviously.
So he's heading back to hishome.
He attempted to gather a rescueparty and then went to
Sacramento to procure chloroform.
So he went to Sacramento aswell after he had saved this man
to get the chloroform fornecessary amputations.
(08:53):
Over 10 days he reportedlytraveled approximately 500 miles
.
Holy shit.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Just to save this guy's life.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Yeah, and he ended up saving this guy's life.
That's amazing.
Go snowshoe.
He had a lot of rescues here.
Man Thompson rescued three mentrapped in a blizzard near
Strawberry Station.
He located them eight miles upthe pass and made three separate
trips, carrying each man on hisback down the mountain.
Damn, go snowshoe.
I'm telling you guys, thesecross-country skiers, they are
(09:29):
some athletes.
Snowshoe's proof of it.
Big time.
Yeah, a real Viking-stylemountain man.
Do you think Vikings skied?
I never even thought about that, wait, until just right now
she's not on the water.
No, I know, right, because Iguess a Viking is actually.
Yeah, that's the thing.
Not all people from the areawere Vikings or Vikingers, you
know, because a Viking, ifyou're going to go, a Viking
(09:50):
who's actually performing that'swhere the misconception comes
from.
So it's actually a term.
If you're going to go a Vikingor whatnot, then that's like the
action of going to go a Vikingor whatnot, then that's like the
action of going to raid otherpeoples or whatnot.
And the people who were what weknow as Vikings were actually
Vikingers, right?
So I guess that doesn't apply.
(10:11):
So I wonder if the people ofthe Viking era skied.
That's something I neverthought about.
I don't know.
We should ask the Norns fromour weird episode, you know,
they might weave us that tale ofThor and such.
I did read that he, you know hedid kind of tell these people
(10:31):
that.
So I guess you know, in a wayhe told the government that, hey
, I want to deliver theseletters.
This is bullshit.
But then in return they didpromise him pay and I did read a
story somewhere, which I don'thave in front of me right now,
where he actually went tocongress or some shit like that
trying to get his payback,because you know it's back in
the day.
I guess he died in uh 1876, onmay 15th, so just a couple weeks
(10:56):
ago, basically on this uh daytoday, which I'm not gonna say
because I don't know how quickI'm going to edit this episode.
So, but nonetheless it'll dropbefore.
That comment's irrelevant.
He has a lot of statues andstuff around the country.
I didn't actually count.
He's got them even over inNorway.
I feel too, this SnowshoeThompson.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Yeah, there's like a a lot of statues and there's a
few trails.
There's a pretty importanttrail around Lake Tahoe.
They really pumped this guy'slegacy.
If you were to go to theseareas, from what I've seen it's
kind of a part of their touristpackage.
Is this Snowshoe Thompson?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, I saw the statue in Genoa, which it's in
Italian, it's Genoa, but yeah,statue in Genoa, which it's in
Italian, it's Genoa, but yeah,they say Genoa there, but anyway
, it's a really cool statue.
And then his skis are actuallyup.
You can see like they look.
I forget where exactly thoseare, somewhere on in that range
(11:55):
that he was carrying the mailfor, but they're.
Yeah, they just just look likehow could you even move those,
let alone 90 miles or 510 days,right?
Speaker 1 (12:07):
but yeah, so there's a statue of a dedicated.
Yeah, there's a statue.
Yeah, very dedicated, my friend, there's a statue of him in
genoa, nevada, uh, mormonstation state historic park, so
they call that place.
There's a statue of Placerville, carson Pass.
A lot of places in California.
I do feel like I read one wherethere was.
(12:29):
Yeah for sure.
Indeed, he's no Amo Coivin.
I guess who's more impressive,amo Coivin or Snowshoe Thompson?
You guys might have to checkout the mess skiing episode
about the Finnish skier.
Is it Amo or Armo?
Fuck, I hope I didn't mess thatup.
Mr Koivin, we'll save for now.
(12:50):
Is he Swedish too?
Finnish, finnish, finnish Ithought they had beef, I don't
know.
Anyway, I don't even know shit.
The Nordic peoples I'm nottrying to be that, I'm trying to
be racist.
I guess I don't know.
I don't know.
Man, I don't know.
Nonetheless, guys, focus, focus, focus.
(13:11):
Yeah, there's a Finnish skierwho got all methed out and was
fleeing Russian troops, I don'teven know and was fleeing
Russian troops, I don't evenknow.
He fucking skied like 900 milesor some insane amount of shit
on methamphetamine, nonstop,night and day, doing the D.
So you been skiing before, owen.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
It's been, fuck, probably been 30 years, maybe a
little more.
But yeah, I kind of like thecross-country stuff because you
can just get away from everybodyand then go down a little more.
But yeah, I kind of like thecross-country stuff because you
just get away from everybody andthen you know, go down a little
hill and whatever.
But yeah, people ask me.
They're like you've lived inmontana that long and you
haven't been skiing and I waslike, well, I couldn't afford it
when I was in my 20s, most ofmy 30s.
(13:53):
Now I'm in my 40s, I can barelyafford it and I'd break a
fucking hip and it's cold.
So yeah, yeah, you'll catch mehaving a snack and maybe a
cocktail in the lodge, yeah, butnot freezing my ass off on the
mountain.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
No, no, thank you, john.
No, thank you at all.
I'm the same.
I went once for like someschool free field trip when I
was pretty little, and that wasit.
My friend, never been since.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Don't care to either, just saying it just seems
expensive and cold and hurdy,Right for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
It's cold and hurdy, right?
Oh, you know what else I hear?
I forgot this.
John Horton has a song aboutSnowshoe Thompson titled as such
.
Snowshoe Thompson by JohnHorton yeah, I listened to it
right before the episode.
Almost forgot, almost slippedmy mind.
That's how much of an Americanlegend this guy is, like Johnny
Appleseed of skis people.
I'm free Out there inpodcastlandia.
(14:54):
Check us out atpitlocksupplycom.
Maybe pick up a shirt.
It'd be fantastic.
Promise they're well-made andgood shit.
Absolutely.
It's all quality stuff.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
I have many myself.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I take pride in it.
Actually, all of our shirts areactually made in the US or
Canada.
So there we are, which we dosupport Canada here on.
I Tell Stories, as well as ourfriends in South Mexico.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
So nonetheless, I just got some what do they call
them?
Fancy fruit-flavored slicesthey're like gummies without
hoof in them from WinnipegCanada.
They're quite delicious, sothank you, america's Hat.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Yes, thank you.
Winnipeg Salute or salute, Idon't know.
Is that French salute or isthat just like?
Speaker 2 (15:46):
I don't know.
Italian is like salute, salute,you say, but it has a D at the
end of it.
I think there is some verysimilar form in French, but I am
not the foremost authority onsuch matters.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Well, this is very appropriate for an episode about
a Norwegian skiing immigrantpostal worker.
Do you think he ever wentpostal?
I don't know.
Who knows.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I would if I didn't get paid.
Fuck, someone would be catchingone of those 10-foot skis to
the dome, like fuck that shit.
But it sounds like he was alevel-headed chap.
But that's bullshit.
20 years of essentially likehard labor.
Of course I can't think of whatelse to call it Right and it
(16:31):
doesn't appear of the Lord's.
I can't think of what else tocall it Right.
Maybe we should start aGoFundMe for the descendants of
Mr Thompson.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Unless they're doing well.
But yeah, I don't know.
You know, at the same time Iwas just thinking like in all
this, I never read one thingwhere he definitely didn't find
any gold, because that'dprobably be a pretty big part of
the story.
No kidding yeah, damn Snowshoe.
I wonder if people call himthat like Snowshoe, what up
(16:58):
Snowshoe, you know?
Or Mr Thompson?
This is the shoe, the shoe, thisis the shoe.
Well, he has more than one, butyeah, if you're known as the
shoe, that's what they call thehole in prison, this shoe In
some prisons.
Anyway, hey, pretty good dayout there, guys.
(17:18):
I hope everybody's enjoyingthemselves and I hope you
enjoyed our little, you know,kind of a quick episode, but it
was fun, mainly, I think, for us.
What attracted Owen to this?
I'm just going to Owen's likethis.
I'm just going to Owen's likethis.
I'm going to let you guys in onsomething, I think, just the
name.
He's like ha, no, issue,thompson, what the fuck.
And so here we are, guys doingan episode on it.
(17:40):
I don't care what else he says,I'm pretty sure he just thought
the name was kind of dumb andcatchy, or not dumb.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
No, I thought it pretty cool, and then it was a
cool story.
Oh, he also.
This is not one that you wouldprobably do these days, but did
you know what he did to preventsnow blindness?
Oh, no, I don't.
Actually, he blackened his facewith charcoal.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Oh, yeah, sheesh.
No, that makes sense, though itwould be very similar, yeah,
like under his eyes.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
You know to to yeah reflect, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Wow, I'll be damned.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Yeah, but I don't think that had any.
That wouldn't go over wellthese days.
No, I don't think he had anymalintent.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
I don't think so, I don't think so either.
You never know, I suppose.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
We're not calling Snowshoe Thompson racist.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
No, no, either, you never know, I suppose we're not
calling Snow Shoot Tom to theraces.
No, he did ski in blackface.
Apparently that's what you'resaying, oh no, no.
I tell stories.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
people Sounded like a hell of a guy.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Yeah, heck of a hell of a for sure guy.
Yeah, no, I think it's a prettygreat thing and he's a pretty
big deal around the region andit's a nice little story.
I don't know For all themskiers out there, you should be
getting Snowshoe Thompsontattoos or something, because
he's the one that brought it toyou.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Now we're giving advice on body art.
Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
All right, why not you yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:10):
of course, why not?
Speaker 1 (19:13):
You know, diversify.
Yeah for sure.
If your last name's Thompson,why not give that boy a name
like Snowshoe?
Okay yeah, did we do anOmnastics episode?
I can't even fucking remember.
We've done stuff with names.
Oh yeah, we did.
Yeah, we did one on names thatwould fit into the.
Optimus Prime category.
I feel what's your name?
(19:34):
Snowshoe, damn it.
And you know they wouldn't wantus to shorten it because then
they'd call him SS.
Oh boo, yeah, I know Exactly,nobody want, okay.
Anyway, sorry guys, I went offon a tangent.
We never do that here, no, notat itellstories.
(19:55):
Make sure to hit us up thoughpitlocksplycom
itellstoriespodcast on instagram.
That's kind of the only thingswe got functioning right now, as
we're in the process oftransitioning to doing some more
stuff, I guess.
So, on that note, because Ijust explained that, Much love
everybody you.
Oh hoi hoi.
Well, hello, hello, hello there, good sir, on this lovely day,
I don't know why I answered likehello what, I don't know what's
.
It must be because we're doing.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Was that a bad Norwegian accent?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I guess so, because it's like an old-timey episode.
Maybe I'm just in mode today.
I was thinking about this rightbefore the call.
I was like man, it's such anice day out and here we are
going to talk about skiing inwinter what the fuck, man.
But here we are.
I tell stories.
It's just how we roll.
Where did you hear aboutSnowshoe Thompson?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I can't.
It was on TV so I can't taketoo much credit.
But then we do our own researchpeople, we don't just
regurgitate.
It was all in the idiot box.
But it's something that it justreally taught me A couple of
these.
I've just heard the topic kindof in passing.
I'm like, okay, I'm going toresearch this name.
But Snowshoe Thompson, who wasborn in the Telemark District in
(01:00):
Norway as John Torstensenruh, Ithink it's, Torstisonru, I
think it's Torstison, torstison,yeah, something like that.
So Snow-Shoe Thompson's a loteasier to say for us uncultured
Americans.
Yes, but quite the story onthis gentleman.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Yeah, there is.
He immigrated to the US at theage of 10.
They settled in Illinois for alittle while and then ended up
in Missouri and Iowa, kind of inthat area.
He adopted John Thompson whenthey immigrated.
But like a lot of people at thetime, I mean I guarantee you
(01:44):
know, if you have lineage thatgoes back generations here in
the US or whatever, there's apretty good chance that your
family's last name was changed.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
you know, yeah, and I did see that he changed it to
his.
After his father died, hismother remarried, and so he
changed it to his stepfather'slast name.
To, yeah, americanize it right.
Yeah, make it easier for us todo an episode yeah, snowshoe
thompson has a ring to it.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
You know what I'm saying?
It's a, it's a thing, yeah,yeah, when we they talk about
snowshoes here, people, uh, it'sjust was the term for skis back
in the day.
I guess they didn't have a wordfor skis yet.
I don't know Something.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
And he carved.
Yeah, essentially they werelike they didn't look like what
we think of as, yeah, assnowshoes.
Now it was like 10-foot longskis, yeah.
So I don't know what theaverage ski is now.
I've only been skiing a coupletimes.
It's not 10 feet.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
That's gigantic, I would it's not 10 feet.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
That's gigantic, I would.
I would think like four feet orsomething.
Yeah, I don't know yeah, that'sa good point, anything about
that good bro oh, and then healso just had a single pole that
he used to both like steer andbreak, which breaking on 10 foot
long wooden planks essentiallydoesn't sound like much fun.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
No, it doesn't.
It kind of made me feel like itwas like how he skied through
these sierra nevadas, which Ihaven't even got touch on yet,
but let's touch on this becausewe're already here.
So he, it reminds me of likehow you would paddle a canoe
with one oar, you know, withone-sided oars, how I, I think
he would do, like as across-country skiing style, like
(03:27):
traditional norwegian skiing,which is why he you know this is
where it comes from he learnedto ski before he moved to the us
and he remembered it and thenso he ended up carving these 10
foot skis out of oak, which isinsane, I thought.
And then, you know, bringingskiing.
He's known as like the personwho brought modern skiing as we
(03:48):
know it, basically to the US.
So that's kind of another funfact about it.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, all the people from Scandinavian countries
would have experienced thatreally before.
He was like I was reallysurprised and that's basically.
Let's see, the demand forgetting mail across the Sierra
Nevada only came out of the goldrush.
So, you know, so many peoplefrom all over went and I mean
(04:14):
this is impassable territoryLike this is not for the faint
of heart and I guess he wouldski 90 miles in three days
carrying an 80 to, you know, 80to 100 pound stack of mail right
and brought no gun, no blanket,like no gear at all, just, uh,
(04:36):
matches to start a fire and thebible and his bible damn, yeah,
yeah, because he moved toCalifornia because of the gold
rush in 1851, this SnowshoeThompson character, and you know
, like everybody else, he hadthe gold fever, you know he
wanted to make it in America.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
You know he had the dream, you know.
So he took off and he went toPlacerville, california.
That's where he was at, that'swhere he was at.
His motivation for carrying themail basically was the fact
that during certain months ofthe year nobody could get their
stuff through to their family,and this was like the lifeline
for people.
There wasn't even telegraphlines in these areas, from what
(05:16):
I understood.
So it was basically like thisyou would give your mail to the
Pony Express or whatever it wasat the time, and then it hit a
stagecoach and then it would goon a train and then it would go
on a steamboat, then back onanother stagecoach just to get
around the Sierra Nevadas, andit could take up to the whole
(05:37):
winter basically to get a letter.
So that's what motivated him tocarve these skis.
Get back to his Norwegian roots,man.
Okay, over here we're talkingserious snowshoe tossing
business, my friend, you know.
So he got back to his roots and, yeah, he did it.
He was skiing over thesemountains with no modern
(05:57):
equipment, often just sleepingon like little beds of grass.
Drinking creek water was common, I guess, and apparently he did
not get dysentery.
I didn't read any stories aboutthat, but I suppose if you're
up in the mountains, though, andyou're drinking direct creek
water from like snow runoff back, then you wouldn't?
There's probably a pretty lowchance of getting sick from it,
(06:18):
wouldn't you think, sort of Idon't know.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, typically, like I think, you get giardia which
is from cows or livestock ingeneral.
Yeah, polluting the water, andso I wouldn't think there are
many chickens up at the top ofthe sea.
And you know what he got paidfor?
His 20 years of service?
No, clue?
Speaker 1 (06:42):
actually no, what is it?
I'm interested.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Nothing.
What that's fucked up.
Yeah, he was continually like.
Local authorities promised topay him, I guess, for years.
Never happened, he never used,he never received a single
dollar in 20 years, he'd neversigned a contract.
And then he attempted to charge, eventually a dollar for every
(07:07):
letter, but people refused topay him but still wanted their
mail delivered, of course, andtried to get it, even through DC
and all this.
So, yeah, he did all this likerisking his life.
Oh yeah, pretty much every trip.
You know what I mean, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Saving people too.
Yeah, absolutely nothing.
And he was saving people outthere too he was.
There were some stories aboutit.
I mean he, oh right, yeah, hehad.
There's a couple stories.
Let me break some of these down.
Break it down Because there'ssome more to it than just that
he delivered the mail.
This guy was nuts.
(07:45):
There's a story of his wolfencounter in 1857.
In the winter of 1857, whiletraversing Hope Valley south of
Lake Tahoe, thompson encounteredsix large timber wolves
feasting on a carcass.
As he approached, the wolveslined up and held him.
Despite the tension, thompsoncontinued skiing past them and
they ultimately returned totheir meal without pursuing him.
He later described this as theonly time he felt truly
(08:11):
frightened during his mountaintravels.
Snowshoe Thompson Okay, youknow.
So there's something.
He has another one where, in1856, so I'm backtracking here,
I guess a bit Thompsondiscovered the prospect of James
Sisson Snowbound for 12 dayswith a severe frostbite.
So he reckoned and then heunderstood that this guy was in
serious trouble.
So he stopped his mail routehere.
(08:31):
He ended up skiing back toGenoa, which is where he had
just delivered some mailpreviously.
So he's heading back to hishome.
He attempted to gather a rescueparty and then went to
Sacramento to procure chloroform.
So he went to Sacramento aswell after he had saved this man
to get the chloroform fornecessary amputations.
(08:53):
Over 10 days he reportedlytraveled approximately 500 miles
.
Holy shit.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Just to save this guy's life.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Yeah, and he ended up saving this guy's life.
That's amazing.
Go snowshoe.
He had a lot of rescues here.
Man Thompson rescued three mentrapped in a blizzard near
Strawberry Station.
He located them eight miles upthe pass and made three separate
trips, carrying each man on hisback down the mountain.
Damn, go snowshoe.
I'm telling you guys, thesecross-country skiers, they are
(09:29):
some athletes.
Snowshoe's proof of it.
Big time.
Yeah, a real Viking-stylemountain man.
Do you think Vikings skied?
I never even thought about that, wait, until just right now
she's not on the water.
No, I know, right, because Iguess a Viking is actually.
Yeah, that's the thing.
Not all people from the areawere Vikings or Vikingers, you
know, because a Viking, ifyou're going to go, a Viking
(09:50):
who's actually performing that'swhere the misconception comes
from.
So it's actually a term.
If you're going to go a Vikingor whatnot, then that's like the
action of going to go a Vikingor whatnot, then that's like the
action of going to raid otherpeoples or whatnot.
And the people who were what weknow as Vikings were actually
Vikingers, right?
So I guess that doesn't apply.
(10:11):
So I wonder if the people ofthe Viking era skied.
That's something I neverthought about.
I don't know.
We should ask the Norns fromour weird episode, you know,
they might weave us that tale ofThor and such.
I did read that he, you know hedid kind of tell these people
(10:31):
that.
So I guess you know, in a wayhe told the government that, hey
, I want to deliver theseletters.
This is bullshit.
But then in return they didpromise him pay and I did read a
story somewhere, which I don'thave in front of me right now,
where he actually went tocongress or some shit like that
trying to get his payback,because you know it's back in
the day.
I guess he died in uh 1876, onmay 15th, so just a couple weeks
(10:56):
ago, basically on this uh daytoday, which I'm not gonna say
because I don't know how quickI'm going to edit this episode.
So, but nonetheless it'll dropbefore.
That comment's irrelevant.
He has a lot of statues andstuff around the country.
I didn't actually count.
He's got them even over inNorway.
I feel too, this SnowshoeThompson.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Yeah, there's like a a lot of statues and there's a
few trails.
There's a pretty importanttrail around Lake Tahoe.
They really pumped this guy'slegacy.
If you were to go to theseareas, from what I've seen it's
kind of a part of their touristpackage.
Is this Snowshoe Thompson?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, I saw the statue in Genoa, which it's in
Italian, it's Genoa, but yeah,statue in Genoa, which it's in
Italian, it's Genoa, but yeah,they say Genoa there, but anyway
, it's a really cool statue.
And then his skis are actuallyup.
You can see like they look.
I forget where exactly thoseare, somewhere on in that range
(11:55):
that he was carrying the mailfor, but they're.
Yeah, they just just look likehow could you even move those,
let alone 90 miles or 510 days,right?
Speaker 1 (12:07):
but yeah, so there's a statue of a dedicated.
Yeah, there's a statue.
Yeah, very dedicated, my friend, there's a statue of him in
genoa, nevada, uh, mormonstation state historic park, so
they call that place.
There's a statue of Placerville, carson Pass.
A lot of places in California.
I do feel like I read one wherethere was.
(12:29):
Yeah for sure.
Indeed, he's no Amo Coivin.
I guess who's more impressive,amo Coivin or Snowshoe Thompson?
You guys might have to checkout the mess skiing episode
about the Finnish skier.
Is it Amo or Armo?
Fuck, I hope I didn't mess thatup.
Mr Koivin, we'll save for now.
(12:50):
Is he Swedish too?
Finnish, finnish, finnish Ithought they had beef, I don't
know.
Anyway, I don't even know shit.
The Nordic peoples I'm nottrying to be that, I'm trying to
be racist.
I guess I don't know.
I don't know.
Man, I don't know.
Nonetheless, guys, focus, focus, focus.
(13:11):
Yeah, there's a Finnish skierwho got all methed out and was
fleeing Russian troops, I don'teven know and was fleeing
Russian troops, I don't evenknow.
He fucking skied like 900 milesor some insane amount of shit
on methamphetamine, nonstop,night and day, doing the D.
So you been skiing before, owen.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
It's been, fuck, probably been 30 years, maybe a
little more.
But yeah, I kind of like thecross-country stuff because you
can just get away from everybodyand then go down a little more.
But yeah, I kind of like thecross-country stuff because you
just get away from everybody andthen you know, go down a little
hill and whatever.
But yeah, people ask me.
They're like you've lived inmontana that long and you
haven't been skiing and I waslike, well, I couldn't afford it
when I was in my 20s, most ofmy 30s.
(13:53):
Now I'm in my 40s, I can barelyafford it and I'd break a
fucking hip and it's cold.
So yeah, yeah, you'll catch mehaving a snack and maybe a
cocktail in the lodge, yeah, butnot freezing my ass off on the
mountain.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
No, no, thank you, john.
No, thank you at all.
I'm the same.
I went once for like someschool free field trip when I
was pretty little, and that wasit.
My friend, never been since.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Don't care to either, just saying it just seems
expensive and cold and hurdy,Right for sure.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
It's cold and hurdy, right?
Oh, you know what else I hear?
I forgot this.
John Horton has a song aboutSnowshoe Thompson titled as such
.
Snowshoe Thompson by JohnHorton yeah, I listened to it
right before the episode.
Almost forgot, almost slippedmy mind.
That's how much of an Americanlegend this guy is, like Johnny
Appleseed of skis people.
I'm free Out there inpodcastlandia.
(14:54):
Check us out atpitlocksupplycom.
Maybe pick up a shirt.
It'd be fantastic.
Promise they're well-made andgood shit.
Absolutely.
It's all quality stuff.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
I have many myself.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I take pride in it.
Actually, all of our shirts areactually made in the US or
Canada.
So there we are, which we dosupport Canada here on.
I Tell Stories, as well as ourfriends in South Mexico.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
So nonetheless, I just got some what do they call
them?
Fancy fruit-flavored slicesthey're like gummies without
hoof in them from WinnipegCanada.
They're quite delicious, sothank you, america's Hat.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Yes, thank you.
Winnipeg Salute or salute, Idon't know.
Is that French salute or isthat just like?
Speaker 2 (15:46):
I don't know.
Italian is like salute, salute,you say, but it has a D at the
end of it.
I think there is some verysimilar form in French, but I am
not the foremost authority onsuch matters.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Well, this is very appropriate for an episode about
a Norwegian skiing immigrantpostal worker.
Do you think he ever wentpostal?
I don't know.
Who knows.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I would if I didn't get paid.
Fuck, someone would be catchingone of those 10-foot skis to
the dome, like fuck that shit.
But it sounds like he was alevel-headed chap.
But that's bullshit.
20 years of essentially likehard labor.
Of course I can't think of whatelse to call it Right and it
(16:31):
doesn't appear of the Lord's.
I can't think of what else tocall it Right.
Maybe we should start aGoFundMe for the descendants of
Mr Thompson.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Unless they're doing well.
But yeah, I don't know.
You know, at the same time Iwas just thinking like in all
this, I never read one thingwhere he definitely didn't find
any gold, because that'dprobably be a pretty big part of
the story.
No kidding yeah, damn Snowshoe.
I wonder if people call himthat like Snowshoe, what up
(16:58):
Snowshoe, you know?
Or Mr Thompson?
This is the shoe, the shoe, thisis the shoe.
Well, he has more than one, butyeah, if you're known as the
shoe, that's what they call thehole in prison, this shoe In
some prisons.
Anyway, hey, pretty good dayout there, guys.
(17:18):
I hope everybody's enjoyingthemselves and I hope you
enjoyed our little, you know,kind of a quick episode, but it
was fun, mainly, I think, for us.
What attracted Owen to this?
I'm just going to Owen's likethis.
I'm just going to Owen's likethis.
I'm going to let you guys in onsomething, I think, just the
name.
He's like ha, no, issue,thompson, what the fuck.
And so here we are, guys doingan episode on it.
(17:40):
I don't care what else he says,I'm pretty sure he just thought
the name was kind of dumb andcatchy, or not dumb.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
No, I thought it pretty cool, and then it was a
cool story.
Oh, he also.
This is not one that you wouldprobably do these days, but did
you know what he did to preventsnow blindness?
Oh, no, I don't.
Actually, he blackened his facewith charcoal.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Oh, yeah, sheesh.
No, that makes sense, though itwould be very similar, yeah,
like under his eyes.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
You know to to yeah reflect, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Wow, I'll be damned.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Yeah, but I don't think that had any.
That wouldn't go over wellthese days.
No, I don't think he had anymalintent.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
I don't think so, I don't think so either.
You never know, I suppose.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
We're not calling Snowshoe Thompson racist.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
No, no, either, you never know, I suppose we're not
calling Snow Shoot Tom to theraces.
No, he did ski in blackface.
Apparently that's what you'resaying, oh no, no.
I tell stories.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
people Sounded like a hell of a guy.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Yeah, heck of a hell of a for sure guy.
Yeah, no, I think it's a prettygreat thing and he's a pretty
big deal around the region andit's a nice little story.
I don't know For all themskiers out there, you should be
getting Snowshoe Thompsontattoos or something, because
he's the one that brought it toyou.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Now we're giving advice on body art.
Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
All right, why not you yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:10):
of course, why not?
Speaker 1 (19:13):
You know, diversify.
Yeah for sure.
If your last name's Thompson,why not give that boy a name
like Snowshoe?
Okay yeah, did we do anOmnastics episode?
I can't even fucking remember.
We've done stuff with names.
Oh yeah, we did.
Yeah, we did one on names thatwould fit into the.
Optimus Prime category.
I feel what's your name?
(19:34):
Snowshoe, damn it.
And you know they wouldn't wantus to shorten it because then
they'd call him SS.
Oh boo, yeah, I know Exactly,nobody want, okay.
Anyway, sorry guys, I went offon a tangent.
We never do that here, no, notat itellstories.
(19:55):
Make sure to hit us up thoughpitlocksplycom
itellstoriespodcast on instagram.
That's kind of the only thingswe got functioning right now, as
we're in the process oftransitioning to doing some more
stuff, I guess.
So, on that note, because Ijust explained that, Much love
everybody you.
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