The Boyne Mountain Resort was originally founded by Jim Christianson and John Norton. The group purchased the site for $1 in 1947 from Michigan Senator William Pierson and opened it as a ski resort in 1948. The founders acquired the first chairlift ever built and moved it’s parts are still in use today.

Between 1947 and 1992, Boyne Mountain and Boyne Highlands innovated in chairlifts, creating the world’s first triple chairlift (1963), world’s first quad chairlift (1965) and the US’s first six-passenger chairlift (1992).