Posted on 01/02/2023 7:02:57 AM PST by Twotone
Idaho is pretty underappreciated when it comes to useful inventions that are widely used around the world. We invented the television, for goodness sake. Still, the only thing that comes to people’s minds when they think of Idaho are potatoes. There are even some Idahoans who are unaware of all the amazing things our state has done. Did you know the chairlift was invented here? There’s no telling where snow sports like skiing and snowboarding would be today without this invention. Not many people are aware of this little tidbit, but the story is truly a weird one.
Ski and snowboard culture are huge here in Idaho, and there's a good reason for that. Idaho basically invented skiing as we know it in America.
Not only was the chairlift invented in Idaho, but it made it's first appearance at the country's very first ski resort in Sun Valley. Sun Valley still maintains a reputation as one of the top ski towns in the country. This place lives and breathes ski culture. It only makes sense that the world's very first chairlift was unveiled here.
The Sun Valley Ski Resort was preparing to open in 1936 as America's very first ski resort. The founder was the chairman of the Union Pacific Railroad, William Averell Harriman.
For the country's first ski resort, Harriman wanted to create a new way of bringing skiers to the top of the mountain. Recreational skiing had existed for some time before, but the ways of transporting skiers up the slope still had not been perfected. They often used tow ropes or bars, which would wear the skier out before they even had a chance to ski down the mountain.
(Excerpt) Read more at onlyinyourstate.com ...
When my son was five, I taught him to ski. He did ok on the bunny hill tow rope so we graduated to the chair lift. His first time was ok. Second time, he faltered as he got off and I missed the grab. He fell.
I yelled “Don’t get u….” WHACK
He got smacked on the head by the next chair.
His ski trip turned into a Ski Patrol snowmobile ride and a trip to the hospital for a few stitches in his head.
Yeah, well, I’m told queso cheese dip was invented in Arkansas.
So neener.
some inventions are inevitable. This one of them.
Everyone claims to have invented the television.
“I yelled “Don’t get u….” WHACK”
I’m against corporal punishment. Just kidding, had to get that one in before the Karens here blame you. Just about EVERYONE will wipe out getting off a chairlift the first time.
Story doesn’t sound bizarre to me. Sounds like old-fashioned American ingenuity,
Claiming to have invented television is demonstrative of ignorance of the subject. The author starts out with bullstuff, so why should I bother reading the rest?
And cashew chicken was invented in Missouri.
How does a state invent anything?
Dang!
And we always were told that Al Gore had invented the ski lift. /s
The TV had a long path to fruition. Philo Farnsworth may have been in Idaho when he first pitched the idea of transmitting lines to a CRT, but he was from Utah and moved quite a bit. Still there were many people pursuing the TV idea.
martin_fierro wrote:
Yeah, well, I’m told queso cheese dip was invented in Arkansas.
That’s blasphemy.
Just like Chili Frito Pie wasn’t invented in Texas.
Or Texas chili has beans.
Just a big nope.
“We invented the television, for goodness sake. Still, the only thing that comes to people’s minds when they think of Idaho are potatoes.”
Potatoes are more important than television. Potatoes are more important than anything. Anyhow, IMO. ;)
“Between ‘Famous Potatoes’ and ‘Live Free or Die’ the truth lies.” - George Carlin
I still suspect the slogan “Famous Potatoes” was a plot to sell vanity license plates that don’t have it...
Philo Taylor Farnsworth (August 19, 1906 â March 11, 1971) was an American inventor and television pioneer.
In 1918, the Farnsworth family moved to a relative’s 240-acre (1.0 km2) ranch near Rigby, Idaho.
On September 7, 1927, Farnsworth’s image dissector camera tube transmitted its first image, a simple straight line, to a receiver in another room of his laboratory at 202 Green Street in San Francisco.
I had friend in HS in 1975, that moved from California. He was a surfer. We lived in the hills 15 miles outside of White Salmon Washington and got quite a bit of snow. So one night we took his surfboard, cut the fin off of it and decided to surf down the hillside. It was to wide to control but it was fun. By the end of the night we just drilled a hole in the nose and tied a rope through it.
So I guess you could say we came up with snowboard concept.
That’s funny. Never heard that before.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.