Snowshoe Thompson was a nickname for John A. Thompson, an early resident of Nevada and California. He is considered the father of California skiing. Between 1856-1876, he delivered mail between Sacramento and Genoa, Nevada and later Virginia City. During the winter he would travel by "snowshoe", more commonly referred to today as cross-country skiing, a method of transportation previously unknown in the United States but well-known in his native Norway. Thompson delivered the first silver ore to be mined from the Comstock Lode. Later he taught people how to make skiis as well as the basics of skiing. Despite his twenty years of service, he was never paid for delivering the mail.