Byron Riblet: Forgotten Engineering Genius
Byron Riblet: Forgotten Engineering Genius tells the riches-to-rags tale of a man who accomplished impressive engineering feats in North and South America during the early 1900s but has since been nearly forgotten. His Spokane-based Riblet Tramway Company became the world’s leading producer of aerial tramways and ski chairlifts. However, his achievements in the mining and ski transportation industries have been incorrectly attributed to his younger brother, Royal. Byron Riblet’s contributions to the development of early Spokane have also gone unrecognized. He designed large railway projects, platted new additions, laid courses for the city’s first steam-driven and electric railways, and designed the waterworks that provide clean drinking water for the city to this day. After he died in 1952, his cremated remains went unclaimed and lay in storage for nearly 70 years. How could one of the twentieth century’s most prolific engineers rise to greatness only to be lost to time?