When Mount Cranmore ski resort opened in the winter of 1937-38, a tow rope hoisted skiers to the top of the trails.
Its owners, looking for a unique new lift, hired local mechanic George Morton, who invented the Skimobile in 1939. Constructed on the same model as San Francisco’s cable cars, Cranmore’s Skimobile transported skiers up the mountain in individual cars on a wooden trestle pulled by a cable located underneath. Two additional innovative ski lifts were built in New Hampshire in the late 1930s.
The first chairlift in the eastern United States opened at Belknap Mountain Recreation Center in 1937, and the following year Cannon Mountain opened its Aerial Tramway, the first passenger tramway in North America designed specifically for skiing.
Together, these technological innovations, along with ski clubs, lodging facilities, and railroad transportation to the mountains, fueled the growth of skiing as a winter sport and launched the Granite State’s winter tourism industry.
N.H. Historical Society