On a sunny Sunday in February 1958, nine men met near the spot now occupied by the Sunday River Inn to climb a mountain.

John Trinward, Addison Saunders, Murray Thurston, Howard Cole, Dick Walden, Stan Davis, Wilbur Myers, Vance Richardson, and Paul Kailey were members of the Bethel Area Development Corporation, set up to explore ways to bring business to Bethel in winter. Their idea was that a ski area could help achieve their goal. Eight had snowshoes. Kailey chose skis with climbing skins. They followed a tote road into what is now the runout for Lower Cascades and started up Barker Mountain.

On the ledges at the summit they cooked steaks while enjoying the winter views of Mount Washington. When they started down, Paul Kailey removed the climbing skins from his skis and became the first to ski what was to become Sunday River Skiway. On Dec. 19, 1959, Sunday River officially opened for business.

In that short time, they raised $90,000, built a base lodge and parking lot, cut trails and erected a T-bar. They moved a rope tow from Vernon Street in Bethel to serve a beginners’ slope. It took me almost as long to piece together the history of the 50 years for a book, but I got a real insight into the men who built the area.

From “Red” Rolfe, I learned how he and his father, Johnnie, cut the first trails and erected the T-bar. Avery Angevine told me how he and local builders built the base lodge and the access road. He and Howard Cole laid out the parking lot in two hours. Avery’s brother, Ernest, related how he fabricated a drag with spikes to break up the hard pack on the slopes.

As it did 50 years ago, Dec. 19 falls on a Saturday, which means the big party is set for next weekend. I don’t have all the details of the celebration, but you can find them online.

What I do know is what happened 50 years ago. Along with my skiing buddies, Jim Jackson and John Tucker, I was in the lift line when the T-bar started hauling skiers up the mountain that first day. Up until that point, snow had been scarce, and we could only ride the T-bar halfway. Those familiar with Sunday River can picture the scene. The T-bar ran up a narrow path through the woods along what is now the left side looking up at Monday Mourning. Where we had to off-load was near the top of the race arena. We could slide over and ski the lower half of Lower Cascades or turn right and ski Rocking Chair. I don’t have any idea how many runs we took that day. I do know that Paul Kailey and his son, Peter, rode the first T-bar followed by Murray Thurston’s sons, David and Peter.

As more snow fell, we got to ride the entire 3,000-foot T-bar and ski all of Lower Cascades the rest of the season. Two years later, another T-bar was installed to take skiers to the summit. Two years after that, beginners got their own T-bar on the Mixing Bowl. By the end of the 1960s, Sunday River had three T-bars and about a dozen trails.

Sepp Gmuender was brought on as general manager in 1970 and immediately installed snowmaking on Mixing Bowl. The area opened Thanksgiving weekend and had to call local radio stations to tell their listeners that Sunday River could sell no more lift tickets. More than 700 skiers were crowded onto a narrow strip of snow along the side the T-bar line. The next year, Gmuender got a chair lift for, as he told me, “No money down.”

The directors, who had run the area while operating their own businesses, decided it was time to sell the area and it was purchased in 1972 by the Sherburne Corporation (SKI), parent company of Killington. Les Otten was sent from their management training program. A few things were improved — top-to-bottom snowmaking and the South Ridge base lodge, but in 1976 Sherburne acquired Mt. Snow in Vermont. That resort’s location closer to the population centers of New York and Connecticut got the parent’s attention. Feeling left out, Otten told his bosses, “If you’re not going to do anything with the area, why not sell it to me.”

They did in 1980. Otten bought a ski area with two chair lifts and three T-bars attracting 32,000 skier visits annually. Fifteen years later, the resort was spread over seven peaks with 18 lifts, 130 plus trails and enough beds in condos and hotels to house the nearly 600,000 visits it was attracting. The resort had become the second largest in New England and was about to be the headquarters for the American Skiing Company with resorts across the country.

It’s a great story of how a ski area rose from humble beginnings to a giant of the industry. The winter business those nine men were looking for exceeded expectations. The winter payroll now is around 1,200 employees, and a golf course and other amenities have created many year-round jobs.

The first person I interviewed for the book was Mike Thurston, who was one of the founders and served as president of the corporation for 10 years. When I asked if he envisioned what Sunday River had become, he answered, “Not in our wildest dreams.”

Those dreams will be celebrated next weekend and throughout this 50th year. Of those who climbed the mountain that day in 1958, only Jack Trinward survives. But what they started is thriving, and the future is bright. It should be a great birthday celebration.