• Collaborated with Canton Area Historical Museum and Haywood County Historical & Genealogical Society representatives to determine destination of Plott House collection
  • Completed filming and began editing the Sunburst and Other Logging Operations In the Bethel/Cold Mountain Region DVD for anticipated release by fall of 2018
  • The Possum on a Whale CD, Sunburst Sessions, developed by the HP Committee, is now available through our website and at Blue Ridge Books and Shelton House Gift Shop.
  • Discovered a long-lost Hargrove family diary from the Civil War era among the Plott artifacts
  • Collected a painting of the 1867 Pingree Priestly and Charity Haseltine Osborne Plott House painted by Jason Hawkins (donated by Yvonne Hawkins)
  • Consulted with the Haywood County Historical & Genealogical Society and NCDOT regarding the future of the second of two historic truss bridges in Bethel: Truss Bridge #248
  • Conducted a survey of the Historic Preservation Committee concerning the location of a 19th century cemetery adjacent to the County Home near Silver Bluff Nursing Home
  • The Plott collection received front-page coverage in Vicinitus twice in 2018.
  • Collected pictures relating to Bethel School history from Maude Shephard
  • Organized/expanded library files of Bethel historical documents
  • Awarded the fifth Pigeon Valley Award for Historic Preservation to Charles and Martha Trantham for their stewardship of the Lenoir's Creek Farm and the historic herd of Red Devon cattle
  • Conducted a "Bed Turning" event hosted by textile specialist, Suzanne McDowell, that featured the six Plott House quilts
  • BRCO’s Historic Preservation Committee completed our five-year-in-the-making project, Sunburst and Other Logging Operations in the Bethel & Cold Mountain Region DVD. The DVD, completed just before Christmas, sold well enough that the supply ran out within two weeks.
  • Consulted with Western Carolina University’s Heritage Center representatives and Suzanne McDowell, textile specialist, to analyze artifacts, memorabilia, photographs, letters, post cards, quilts, store ledger, historic diary, art prints, and other collections from the James Henry and Flora Kinsland Plott House

Projects Timeline

2015

  • BRCO submitted research about the agricultural, Cherokee, and natural heritage of Bethel to the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area (BRNHA) for heritage evaluation.
  • Collected/reproduced three art prints of historic sites in Bethel from the Henson, Sorrells, and Lackey families (Pingree Plott House, Bethel School in the 1920s, and the Blaylock House)
  • Collaborated with the Haywood County Sesquicentennial of the Civil War Committee to conduct a cemetery tour of graves of Civil War veterans during the “Last Shot Commemoration"
  • Produced a Cold Mountain Scenic Tour brochure for distribution
  • Awarded Norman Long the Pigeon Valley Award for his restoration of the historic Chinquapin Grove School
  • Filmed segments for the Sunburst DVD
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2016

  • BRNHA awarded BRCO site status on the BRNHA Heritage Trail. BRCO’s historic marker is one of three in Haywood County and one of seventy in the western region of the state.
  • Interfaced with individuals, arborists, and DAR to conduct an aerial inspection/pruning of the historic Osborne Boundary Oak tree. Lake Logan Fire Department agreed to water the tree during drought conditions.
  • Collaborated with Steve Sorrells and Cold Mountain Nursery to collect and distribute seedlings of the Osborne Boundary Oak to individuals and organizations that have been important to the tree’s preservation
  • Installed the fourth local historic marker at Pigeon Gap Watering Hole, a location dating to the early 1800s that was used by local residents and their animals as they crossed into Waynesville
  • The NC Society of Historians awarded BRCO’s Historic Preservation Committee, individual members, the videographer, and Dick Alexander the Multi-Media Award for From New College to Springdale DVD.
  • Nick De Paolo made a water-color painting of the three historic school buildings of Bethel School.
  • The Ledbetter family donated a copy of Mack Ledbetter’s colored map of Sunburst for BRCO’s art print collection.
  • Established a library file of BRCO’s historic data
  • Awarded Dick Alexander the Pigeon Valley Award for his New College to Springdale interview that netted a state history award for him and BRCO
  • Filmed segments for the Sunburst DVD

2017

  • Selected Gary Woolard to create an acrylic painting of Truss Bridge #79. NC's oldest metal truss bridge
  • Submitted an application for National Register of Historic Places status for Truss Bridge #79
  • Filmed segments for the Sunburst Logging Community DVD
  • Filmed Possum on a Whale music group to provide background music for the Sunburst DVD
  • Filmed and created a CD titled “Sunburst Sessions” of 13 traditional old-time music songs by Possum on a Whale
  • Raised funds for/installed our fifth local historic marker, designed by the Historic Preservation Committee, that commemorates local inventor, Calvin Filmore Christopher
  • Collected a 1930s photograph of Osborne Farm (donated by Robert Cathey and Bill Holbrook)
  • Collected a painting of the 1867 Pingree Priestly and Charity Haseltine Plott House and family (donated by Bill and Carolyn Nettles)
  • Selected by the overseers of the Plott estate as the organization that directs disposition of some of the James Henry and Flora Kinsland Plott documents, papers, memorabilia, and artifacts
  • Gave the Pigeon Valley Award (posthumously) to Ted Darrell Inman
Multimedia Award

2018

  • Carroll Jones wrote the submittal, and Truss Bridge #79 received National Register of Historic Places designation as the oldest metal truss bridge in NC and the only 19th Century metal truss bridge in the United States with Phoenix columns. A community-wide celebration ensued with local government officials and state preservation organizations represented. WLOS-TV featured the bridge story.
  • Artist Nick DePaolo painted the Woodrow Depot/Post Office. The Tennessee & NC Railroad built the train station that existed in Bethel from 1914-1927. The artist had only one photograph of an end view of the historic structure, but his research led him to recreate a rendering of how the entire facility would have appeared. Western Carolina University’s Mountain Heritage Center provided a photo of men loading apples onto the rail cars at Woodrow. One of Bethel’s alternate names is Woodrow – named for the post office which itself was named for then President Woodrow Wilson. The depot and post office shared this building. Bethel is still listed on maps as Woodrow.
  • Artist Stephanie Grimes traveled to the Cincinnati Zoo to photograph stuffed passenger pigeons. These birds, the most prolific bird species to have inhabited the planet, roosted by the billions in Bethel during their migratory route. Passenger pigeons became extinct in 1914, but their legacy remains in Bethel and Haywood County with Bethel’s alternate name, Pigeon Valley, as well as Pigeon River, Pigeon Gap, and Pigeon Street. Grimes used a unique technique, “scratchboard,” to elicit fine details in her painting.
  • The Sunburst and Other Logging Operations in the Bethel & Cold Mountain Region DVD sold so well that we had to reorder. The NC Society of Historians awarded the Sunburst DVD the Multi-Media Award.
  • National Public Radio conducted an interview about our Sunburst DVD.
  • BRCO distributed the following artifacts of the James Henry and Flora Kinsland Plott collection: 1 quilt to the Appalachian Women’s Museum, 1 quilt to Western Carolina University’s Heritage Center, 4 quilts to the Museum of NC Handicrafts in Shelton House along with a butter mold and handmade kitchen spoon.
  • A committee volunteer transcribed the Flora Kinsland Plott Diary from the Plott collection, conducted research about data contained in the diary, and distributed the Norman Buddy Plott historical account of the Plott family. The diary will go to Western Carolina University for digitization.
  • The Historic Preservation Committee presented a power-point program about Bethel history to Bethel Middle School eighth graders.
  • Cheryl Inman Haney was the 6th recipient of BRCO’s Pigeon Valley Award for Historic Preservation for her numerous writings that include articles in Legends, Tales & History of Cold Mountain, Books 4-6 as well as the “Universalist Herald.” Her book, My People: History of a Mountain Family, is a history of the Inman family. Her eighth grade students collected and published Pigeon Valley, a book about Bethel history. She has given numerous lectures about the Inman family at Inman family reunions and at Cold Mountain Heritage Tours. Haney was a presenter for BRCO’s Sunburst DVD. Her most striking accomplishment is her garnering of two state historical markers for Bethel: Inman Chapel and Sunburst.
  • The Historic Preservation Committee compiled a historical account for the website of the fourteen post offices that have existed in Bethel.
  • The committee started filming a new DVD about Bethel schools with Chinquapin Grove School, the1860s school restored by Norman Long. Long and his brother, J.M., also filmed a segment about the 1900s kaolin mine in Bethel.
  • The committee continues to perform upkeep on Pigeon Gap Watering Hole, a historic site from the 1800s, atop Waynesville Mountain at Pigeon Gap.
  • The committee filmed Mildred Sloan and her daughter, Kay Riddle, for a segment about quilting. Mildred Sloan is 100 years old and still quilting.

2019