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Vermont has always been a popular place to ski downhill. But, in the early days getting up the hill in a faster, less strenuous way than walking was a problem waiting to be solved.
In the early 1930s a Canadian used an awkwardly angled Dodge with a rope around the wheel rim to pull skiers uphill.
Then, in 1934 “Bunny Bertram” of Woodstock Vermont jerry-rigged a more practical device called the “ski-way” on Clinton Gilbert’s farm in South Woodstock. The contraption, pictured below, used a Ford Model T engine with a rope looped over some rims. An historic marker now marks the spot where this occurred.
Picture source: Woodstock Historical Society and online at: http://www.woodstockinn.com/ski-area/mountain
That started a trend towards ever more elaborate ski lifts. In 1935, the Dartmouth Outing Club created the first J-bar lift in New Hampshire. A J-bar pulls you up the hill by your butt, which rests on the hooked part of the J. A year later, in 1936, the Bromley Ski area installed a J-bar.
The first chairlift was previewed at Sun Valley Idaho in 1936. Then, in 1940 Stowe installed a chairlift that was more than a mile long.
Source: Dan Engbert, “Who Made That Ski Lift?,” New York Times, February 23, 2014 and available online at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/magazine/who-made-that-ski-lift.html?_r=0
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