and the return trip in two days. Thompson carried no blanket and no gun; he claimed he was never lost even in blizzards. A rescue attributed to him was that of a man trapped in his cabin by unusually deep snow. Thompson reached him, realized the damage to the man's legs from frostbite was sufficient to kill him, skied out to get chloroform, skied back in with it, and delivered the chloroform in time to save him. Thompson usually traveled the route known as "Johnson's Cutoff", a pathway first marked by John Calhoun Johnson, an early explorer and first man to deliver mail over the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Today this approximates the route of U.S. Route 50 as it winds its way from Placerville, California to South Lake Tahoe. Personal life In 1866, Thompson married Agnes Singleton (1831-1915) who had come to America from England. The Thompsons' only child, Arthur Thomas, was born on February 11, 1867. 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. In spite of a resolution sent to Washington, D.C. by the Nevada Legislature, the many political contacts he had gathered, and a trip to Washington, D.C. in 1872, Snowshoe Thompson was never paid for his services delivering the United States Mail. Snowshoe Thompson died of appendicitis which developed into pneumonia on May 15, 1876. His grave can be seen in Genoa, Nevada, in Carson Valley, east of Lake Tahoe. His son, Arthur, died two years later of diphtheria, and was buried next to his father at the cemetery in Genoa. Legacy In 1885, a marble stone was erected on the site of Snowshoe's grave. Engraved are a pair of crossed skis and the phrase "Gone but not forgotten." In 2001, a statue of Snowshoe Thompson was erected on the grounds of the Mormon Station State Historic Park in Genoa, Nevada. Monuments to the memory of Snowshoe Thompson can also be found at Carson Pass and at the Boreal Ski Resort and Palisades Tahoe. A memorial stone in Austbygdi, Telemark in Norway where he was born. Thompson Peak is a 9,340-ft summit in the Sierra Nevada that is named for him. Thompson in popular culture In 1954, the character actor Don Kennedy (born 1920) played Thompson in an episode of the syndicated western anthology series, Death