Perusing old newspapers can turn up interesting stories.
“Hank Webber, the cowboy is crossing the Sierras [sic] on his snowshoe horse ‘California,’” the Mariposa Gazette reported on Feb. 19, 1916. Then on March 11, the paper had this story: “Hank Webee [sic] has challenged a snowshoe horse race against his horse ‘California.’”
The Oakland Tribune wrote the journey was based on “an episode recounted by Jack London in one of his books. Many people in a San Francisco club said it was impossible.” But “Hank Webber, Wyoming cowpuncher, and ‘California,’ the original ‘Snowshoe Hoss,’” set out on a “death-defying trip” to prove it was possible.
“I’m not a Jack London hero,” the cowboy told the Tribune; “but I’m a first-class hoss-rider, and if it can be done, I am the man to do it.” He expected it to take a week to cross from the eastern side of the Sierra to Truckee.
Crossing Donner Summit with a horse on snowshoes? That’s the equivalent in historical circles of “man bites dog” (which is an expression we journalistic types use to note something out of the ordinary and worthy of reporting to our public, as we’re doing here). We had to find out more. A trip to the Truckee Library was in order to see microfilmed editions of the Truckee Republican. If anyone was going to report this obviously heroic trip it would be the Truckee Republican. Surely, it would not have let this adventure go unnoticed in town.
The microfilm machine in the library needs replacement but probably not many people use it nowadays. The thing is hard to load, light cannot be adjusted, it squeals as it runs, and so on. Those are the kinds of things researchers have to put up with, and we hope the reader appreciates the sacrifices made on their behalf. We just soldier on.
We squeaked through January ’16 and half of February ’16 until, there it was, on Feb. 17, 1916: “Webber to Arrive About Saturday – Help Swell the Crowd.”
We’d found Hank Webber! Now for the details, and what do horse snowshoes look like?
“Next Saturday morning [Feb. 17 was a Thursday], Hank Webber and his famous snow shoe horse, California, will arrive in Truckee at ten o’clock from his hard trip over the mountain.” Then the paper went on to exhort the readers to come out and welcome Mr. Webber: “…This is one of the biggest pieces of advertising that the Winter Sports have ever had and we should do all in our power to aid it on to a successful conclusion …” The Winter Sports were events that had been created to attract winter-time tourists to Truckee.
A number of weekly motion picture companies were supposed to be in attendance. The article went on, explaining that Webber had started two weeks prior in San Francisco to get to the Truckee Winter Sports. A bet of “several hundred dollars” had been made about the outcome by Samuel Shortridge, a lawyer in San Francisco, and Dr. E.S. Howard, also of San Francisco. Whether this bet was made by inebriated visitors to a gentlemen’s club was not mentioned. Just how does a conversation lead to a bet about whether a horse could cross Donner Summit on snowshoes in mid-winter?
The Truckee Republican wrote there was more enthusiasm for this “trip on a snow shoe horse” “than any other event of like nature…” “It is the talk of the lower country and even the newspapers of Nevada county [sic] are giving it a great deal of publicity.” Webber got to Truckee after crossing Donner Pass a few days after the Feb. 17 edition. On the 24th, Webber was thanking Truckee. He’d had a “royal hearty welcome” on arrival to “your bustling little city.” He’d also had an “elaborate banquet” put on by the chamber of commerce.
It wasn’t easy piloting a snowshoe horse over Donner Summit. In fact, it sounds like it was dangerous and adventurous.
The Snowshoe Horse on Donner Summit
Many newspapers carried parts of the story. The Marin County Tocsin (April 29, 1916) shows the dangers of taking a snowshoe horse over Donner Summit when there’s lots of snow. Note that the article talks about Weber leaving the snowsheds but does not go
into any detail such as, did he use the snowsheds all the way up from snowline? Why the article was published in April, we have
no idea.
“After leaving the Southern Pacific snowsheds at the summit, the way to the bottom of the mountain was almost perpendicular, with many drifts of snow nearly 50 feet deep. The only way over some of the drifts was to tie a rope on the horn of the saddle and let the horse slide down. The horse slipped on one of the drifts and fell to the bottom, almost 100 feet below, luckily escaping injury,” the Marin paper reported.
Before that fall the San Francisco Call, Feb. 16, 1916, and the Marin County Tocsin, July 22, 1916, reported:
“H.O. Weber [sic], who is attempting to ride over the snow drifts of the Sierras [sic] to Truckee on his snowshoe horse ‘California’ and incidentally to win a bet of $250 for Samuel Shortridge, the San Francisco attorney, met with his first serious mishap near here yesterday afternoon. He was able to resume his trip today however.
“Weber was riding along the bank of the Yuba river [sic], about a mile east of Crystal Lake, when his horse slipped through a great drift of heavily packed snow that hung out over the river, and fell into the water.
“Fortunately the water was not over the horse’s head. Weber disengaged himself and made his way through the snow to the river bank with some difficulty. L. Anderson, the Pacific Telephone patrol who was escorting Weber from Emigrant Gap to Cisco, helped Weber out of the water and then sent for assistance. With the help of several men and block and tackle, California was extracted and brought safely to land. The horse did not seem to be injured by his icy bath and Weber remounted and rode into Cisco.”
Another incident was reported by the Grass Valley Morning Union on Feb. 19, 1916. A resident of Emigrant Gap was out on an errand to Blue Canyon. He saw something in the distance “gyrating rapidly from the top of a snowbank — making ghostlike sweeps in a circle and then jiggling rapidly up and down.” The man approached cautiously and saw that the object was a snowshoe. Looking more closely he noted the shoe was attached to a horse’s hind hoof. It was only the shoe and a bit of ankle that was visible. “The man came to the conclusion that there was a horse attached… and the animal was sending out the wireless ‘S.O.S.’ wig-wag for help… The horse had turned turtle and was lying on his back deep in the snowbank…” The man went home for a shovel and dug out the horse “and assisted that animal to get topside on his snowshoes.” Then the man saw a nearby snowbank begin to move, and “wiggle and undulate…” The man did some more digging “and after a few minutes of hard work a man wearing long-haired chaps, a Stetson hat and a frozen smile stood before him in the now.” The man who emerged from the snow introduced himself as Hank Webber. “I’m a rootin’, tootin’, hootin’, scootin’, shootin’ cow man from Wamssutter in Ol Wyoming!”
Webber continued on his way to Truckee.
On March 2 the headlines said, “Webber Will Depart Sunday.” The Sacramento Union reported, “Truckee and the vicinity will celebrate the big event of this year’s winter sports by having next Sunday set aside as Truckee day. Hank Webber will start back over the mountain on his hazardous trip to the other side of the snow line. He will journey back to San Francisco as he came, on horseback. Everyone in Truckee will turn out and give him one of the most royal send offs he has ever witnessed on his many trail trips he has undertaken in the United States. Many people from out of town will also be present next week and arrangements are being made to show them a good time when they visit the snow city.”
Webber intended to go back across the mountains making the “trip on his horse California who will wear the snow shoes the same as she did in coming over.” Again, a crowd was exhorted to attend, “Be sure to see him at the start next sunday [sic] morning because he has done a lot for Truckee and the Winter sports in the line of publicity.”
Once you are scrolling through history it’s hard to stop. A few weeks later the Truckee Republican noted that the Pioneer Monument at Donner Lake would soon be finished. It would be dedicated later in the year.
Meanwhile, 50 Years Earlier
“Even though Hank Webber succeeds in winning his bet by making the trip over the Summit on his famous snowshoe horse ‘California,’ it will seen as a tame feat to Pioneer W. J. Organ of [Nevada City], who made the same trip fifty years ago with his mule when there was snow to the depth of twenty feet on the ground.
“’I made the trip because I wanted to get home and not for any wager or spirit of deviltry, but merely an ordinary trip,’ said Mr. Organ, who rode the old mule, and while it was a very hard trip as he remembers it he had no hair-breadth escapes. He was advised that the trip was impossible and told that he would never reach here alive, but he paid no attention to this advice and got through successfully. He has not much interest in the journey now being made by Webber assisted by expert snowshoers.”
~ Sacramento Union, Feb. 9, 1916
