Could you have been a skiing postmen?
Today, many take getting their mail for granted. With the technology available, mail and packages can easily make their way across the country.
However, history shows that it wasn’t always easy for the postal service to get mail out to the people. In the 1850s, most mail travelled across the country by wagon trains. However, these wagons were often targeted for ambushes and theft, forcing the postal service to find better ways to deliver to the Wild West.
The Birth of Independent Carriers
In 1860, the Pony Express was formed by William H. Russell. Russell hired cowboys who were willing to risk the dangers of robbers and traversing through Native American lands to deliver mail across the country. The Pony Express only lasted for a year and a half but it started a trend of independent mail carriers getting contracted to ride mail via horseback.
In the winter months, taking mail on horseback was virtually impossible so another method had to be devised. By 1880, it was reported that there were around 50 skiing postmen in the state. Some of these skiing postmen are now recognized as the first pioneers of Colorado.
“Father” John Dyer Is Recognized as One of Colorado’s Founders
In the 1830s, John Lewis Dyer moved west to Wisconsin to work in the lead mines. One day while he was inside the mine, an accident occurred that filled the mine with gases that nearly suffocated Dyer.
Dyer quit his mining job and went on the road preaching to communities in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Shortly after, Dyer decided to move to Colorado to continue his preaching work. Often Dyer would set up a tent in the middle of town or set up inside a saloon to preach. In the winter, Dyer would put on his skis to traverse his mail/preaching route between Breckenridge and Leadville to make extra money.
Dyer also was famous for purchasing an old hotel in a mining town dismantling and dragging it with horses over 10 miles of rough terrain to Fairplay, where it was put back together to be the home of his first church.
Postman Al Johnson Is Recognized as One of the Pioneers of Skiing as a Sport
Al Johnson lived in a town in the mountains called Crystal and he became famous for delivering mail on skis in the wintertime. Every week Johnson would strap anywhere between 25 and 50 pounds of mail to his back while he delivered mail from Crystal to Crested Butte.
The route that Johnson took was 17 miles of some of the roughest terrain in the area. However, Johnson’s experience skiing through the mountains with mail strapped to his back ended up paying off when locals in the area started having ski races for money.
The Al Johnson Memorial Uphill/Downhill Telemark Ski Race, which still takes place to this day, was named for him. It starts at the top of Mt. Crested Butte and follows a similar route to the one he used to deliver mail.
Tragedies While Delivering Mail on Skies Were Not Uncommon
According to an article published in the Fort Morgan Times in 1891, about 50 people a year would die trying to deliver mail through the mountains in the wintertime in Colorado as skiing postmen. The article also featured a tragic story of how Swede mail carrier Swan Nilson’s life came to a sudden end.
Nilson was a well-known postman in the Silverton area who worked the route from Silverton to Ophir. On December 23, 1882, the locals in Ophir cautioned Nilson and told him not to take the venture saying that the conditions were too bad. But, Nilson refused because it was only two days before Christmas and he wanted to make sure the residents of Ophir were able to receive their gifts.
The next day, the residents of Ophir were shocked when Nilson didn’t show up with their holiday mail. People went out a few times to search for the postman, but nobody was able to track him down. Then, a rumor circulated in the area when someone claimed to have seen Nilson at a saloon in Leadville. This angered the residents of Ophir because it was believed that Nilson stole all of their mail and took off.
Then on August 13, 1885 about 20 months after he went missing, a search party used shovels and picks to dig under a snow bank where they found Nilson’s body.
While retrieving his body, the search party discovered that all of Ophir’s Christmas mail was still strapped to his back. The mail was then saved and put on display at the postal inspector’s office in Denver to remind everyone how dangerous of a job delivering mail could be.
Better Transportation Methods End the Era of Skiing Postmen
By the 1870s, railroads made their way through the high mountains into the mining towns which provided a better means of transportation of goods including bringing the mail. As the population grew in the state, better roads were built to the mining camps that made travel by horse and wagon much easier than it was when people first started moving to the state.
Once the 20th century came around, much of the mining in the state had ceased meaning that there weren’t as many people living in the high mountain mining towns. In the early 1900s, skiing emerged as a popular sport and pastime activity because skis were no longer needed to traverse the rough terrain of the mountain routes.