Snowshoe Thompson

John Albert Thompson (born Jon Torsteinsson Rue; April 30, 1827 – May 15, 1876), nicknamed Snowshoe Thompson, an early resident of the Sierra Nevada of Nevada and California, was a Norwegian-American considered to be the father of California skiing.

[3][4][5] In 1837, at the age of 10, Thompson came to America with his mother, settling first on a farm in Norway, LaSalle County, Illinois at the Fox River Settlement.

The family subsequently moved on the Norwegian immigrant settlement in Shelby County, Missouri which was under the leadership of Cleng Peerson.

In 1860, Thompson homesteaded a 160-acre ranch in Diamond Valley, south of Genoa in California's Alpine County.

Despite his nickname, he did not make use of the snowshoes that are native to North America, but rather would travel with what the local people applied that term to: ten-foot (over 3-meter) skis, and a single sturdy pole generally held in both hands at once.

From 1868 to 1872 Thompson served on the Board of Supervisors of Alpine County, and was a delegate to the Republican State Convention in Sacramento in 1871.

His son, Arthur, died two years later of diphtheria, and was buried next to his father at the cemetery in Genoa.