Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I Heart Radio and

Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book,

all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the people of the Sierra Nevada

Mountains one figure stands above the rest.

His name was Snowshoe Thompson, a Norwegian-American postman who delivered mail in the Sierra

Nevada's during the mid-19th century. During that period of Western expansion

hundreds of thousands of Americans cross the mountains to seek their fortunes in California,

but virtually all of those pioneers only made the journey once, and many, like the infamous Donner

Party, never even made it to their destination at all.

Snowshoe Thompson though, crossed the Sierras more often than anyone could count.

As a male carrier for the U.S. post office. He braved remote mountain passes

unreachable by freight train and too dangerous for the Pony Express. He looked like

a hero straight out of a Norse myth, six feet tall with a thick blonde beard and striking blue eyes, he could often be seen

streaking through the mountains on his massive skis, way down by a sack of letters.

His friends knew that Snowshoe's story was as American as they come. He was

born in Norway in 1827 and emigrated to America with his mother when he was 10. They lived in a Norwegian immigrant settlement, first in Illinois and then in Missouri.

And then in 1851, at the age of 24, he headed west of California, where he briefly tried his hand at prospecting.

Gold mining though frustrated him and four years later he was starting to despair that

he would never be a success. Then one day he read a story in a Sacramento newspaper.

...