• 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  • Organized/expanded library files of Bethel historical documents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

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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

  • Renowned New Orleans artist and Bethel native, Jason Hawkins, and his mother, Yvonne Hawkins, donated three paintings of historic houses to the Historic Preservation Committee art print collection. Hawkins is a cum laude graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design with degrees in Fine Arts and Historic Preservation.
    1. The 1860 Joseph Turner and Martha Anna Iva Killian Cathey House is considered to be the oldest framed house in Bethel and one of the oldest in Haywood County. The house is located in Highway #110.
    2. The James Henry and Flora Kinsland Plott House (1904) garners the attention of passersby on Highway #110 with its Victorian/Queen Anne style enhanced by a gazebo. Family members dispersed artifacts and collections prior to its sale, and the collection was donated to six museums.
    3. The Pingree Priestly and Charity Haseltine Osborne Plott House (1867) was built just after the Civil War, and its elegance continues to grace a hillside on Lake Logan Road.
  • BRCO’s Historic Preservation Committee has now collected twenty-four art prints which are displayed at the community center, with reproductions available for purchase via the website.
  • BRCO’s Historic Preservation Committee’s historic art print collection has received the NC Society of Historians Multi-Media Award of Excellence.
  • The Historic Preservation Committee was featured at a presentation sponsored by WNC Communities. The program focused on the many accomplishments of the Historic Preservation Committee.
  • Further research about post offices in the Bethel and Cruso communities of Haywood County revealed a total of 14 structures that once served the area. Details about the buildings, location, postmasters and mistresses are presented on BRCO’s website.
  • The committee performs upkeep on the 1800s historic site – Pigeon Gap Watering Hole.
  • The committee conducted research about the history of Bethel Rural Community Organization as well as its predecessor, Bethel Community Organization (1991). BRCO occurred as the result of the waning of the BCO organization, the development of the Pigeon Valley Citizens for Rural Preservation, and the merging of the two groups at approximately 2000. The history is documented in the “About BRCO” portion of the website.
  • A desire to learn about community clubs that existed in Bethel in the earlier part of the 20th Century initiated newspaper archival research about the six community clubs that existed in the mid-1900s: Cecil, Cruso, Center Pigeon, East Pigeon, Stamey Cove, and West Pigeon.
  • In researching the previous community organizations in Bethel, the committee learned about the Pigeon Valley Fair that thrived in the 1950s. A search of newspaper archives revealed details about the massive event that was successful for several years.
  • Cannery operations began to develop at the end of World War II as a result of the concepts prompted by President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress (Projects) Administration. Community canneries enabled local citizens to process their produce in professional canning facilities. The popular project flourished from just after the war until the end of the 1950s when lack of both funds and governmental support doomed the program. The Historic Preservation Committee scoured newspaper archives in order to compile a detailed history of the four canning programs in Haywood County and, in particular, the Bethel Cannery. The history of the Bethel Cannery is detailed on the BRCO website in the “About Bethel” header.
  • The Historic Preservation Committee filmed current owners, Phyllis and John Gaddis, at the location of the Mountain Grove School on Love Joy Rd. The school existed from the 1870s to the early 1900s.
  • With assistance from the Beautification and Maintenances Committees, the Historic Preservation Committee refurbished and organized a file library to house general organizational documents as well as files from each of the BRCO committees. The Historic Preservation Committee files include data about Bethel families, Bethel sites, and research data about Haywood County.
  • Research about the Tiffany Sapphire Mine on Shovel Creek is ongoing.
  • Received documents concerning the Confederate Veterans Memorial Forest & Marker on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
  • Assisted Western Carolina University’s Archive Department in identifying several historical photos from the Plott family collection.
  • Received from John Olin documents detailing the Cold Mountain B-25 Bomber Crash that occurred on Cold Mountain on September 13, 1946.
  • The committee has researched the locations of Bethel’s earliest schools.
  • Phyllis and Bob Barnett have been selected to receive the Pigeon Valley Award for Historic Preservation for 2020. They were overseers of the Inman Chapel restoration project. Phyllis has written a book about Bethel history: At the Foot of Cold Mountain.
  • Following an interview and site location visits, Jay Field’s Closely Held Stories of the Community project sponsored by WNC Communities will include a section on Bethel.

2020