The Peterson Hoist, set up in 1896, was one of the first of semi-permanent gear-hauling infrastructures to be built on the trail. Little is known about P.H. Peterson's hoist, including its location. He may have in fact operated on the adjacent, eponymous Peterson Pass instead of the Chilkoot Pass. Peterson's hoist simply consisted of, according to an observer, a pulley at the top of the pass with a rope running through it. Attached to one end of the rope was a sled with runners and the other a box. Gear would be loaded into the sled while the box would be filled with snow and gravity would work its magic with the snow-filled box pulling the sled up as it went down. Everything would be emptied and the operation repeated. The hoist's simplicity leads to part of the befuddlement over the location, as this hoist left a minimal number of artifacts.