FOSTER CITY LIBRARY; CALIFORNIA LORE
Foster City, California, has one the best libraries in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is located on Hillsdale Blvd., which is the main thoroughfare through Foster City. Since I had some free time, I went browsing for interesting reading about Northern California and the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
I came across this bit of information that I thought was interesting about the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Northern California.
Snow storms, blizzards, and whiteouts--these conditions have been known to be the history of California's Sierras. A native Californian would heed the Sierra's warnings to stay out of the mountains when bad conditions occur. But there was one man who would not heed these warnings. He would take off across the Sierras in a snowstorm on home made skis and miraculously arrive at his destination--this man was known as "Snowshoe Thompson."
John "Snowshoe" Thompson was born in Norway and grew up in the United States. In 1850, he moved to California to look for gold, but he had no luck what-so-ever. Because of his bad luck, he started to carry mail from Placerville, California, to the mines along the California-Nevada border.
Since bad winter conditions prevented the mail from arriving at the mines, and John knew what the mail ment to the miners, he decided to carry the mail during the winter to the men who were working in the mines.
He secretly, so the story in the book goes, made a pair of skies and practiced with them until he could balance huge packs on his back. When he was ready, John went to the Placerville Postmaster and suggested his idea. After a brief discussion, the Postmaster gave John the mail. When the news spread out about John's idea, a crowd formed in Placerville on the day he was to leave for the mines. Someone in the crowd yelled, "Thompson, Snowshoe Thompson"--the name stuck and he became a legend in the mines.
Snowshoe carried the mail through heavy, blinding blizzards, and many times he had nothing with him but a bedroll, one extra set of clothes, and some canned food. He usually slept with his feet toward the fire as the indians did, and sometimes he lived only on jerky and melted snow. Excitement would run wild when word, in a mining area, got to a campsite that "Snowshoe" was arriving. Miners for miles around would arrive at the campsite for mail; or for news of the outside world, or from other campsites, or for stories that he could tell of his trips through the Sierras.
Stories like this one is what makes a library a fascinating place to spend time reading. Foster City Library is a good place to spend time to read about our local area and Northern California.
