This is the story of how James Michael Curran (1903-1968) came to build the first chairlift at Sun Valley in 1936. He was a bridge engineer working for Averell Harriman and the Union Pacific Railroad at the time Harriman decided to develop the first winter destination resort in the U.S. Sidebars give us a peak at Curran's personal history, the technical details on the lift's engineering and a connection with Mt. Eyak, Alaska, the home of a 1939 Sun Valley single using steel-laticcework towers.