The World's First Ski Chairlift

Sun Valley Resort, which opened in Idaho in 1936, was the first destination ski resort in the United States and the first resort in the world to use a chairlift. The lift was designed by Union Pacific Railroad engineer James Curran, who borrowed the concept from a conveyor system used to load bananas onto cargo ships in South America. He reportedly designed it in ten days. The resort quickly became a celebrity hideaway, drawing Ernest Hemingway, Gary Cooper, and Clark Gable. Hemingway spent his final years near Sun Valley and is buried in Ketchum, Idaho.

Source: Wikipedia