Bethel Rural Community Organization (BRCO) conducted the Cold Mountain Heritage Tour from 2005-2011.  The seven-year, ten-site, docent-guided, two-day tours were a marvelous way to instruct locals and visitors about the history of the Cold Mountain region of Bethel.  To allow for further edification about Bethel and Haywood County's people, history, and locations, each year for six years Evelyn Coltman wrote, and the Historic Preservation Committee compiled and printed a new book to accompany the tour.  BRCO wished to capture both oral and documented history with these books; hence, the title for the six books: Legends, Tales & History of Cold Mountain, Books 1 - 6.  In 2010, the NC Society of Historians awarded Evelyn Coltman with the Barringer Award of Excellence for the six volume collection of local history.  BRCO sells the books in ebook format only.

Click the links below for more information on each Book

Sonoma – Valley of the Moon – Sunburst

Hugh K. Terrell's eighth grade classes at Bethel Junior High School researched the historic Sunburst Logging Village that existed on the West Fork of the Pigeon River in the first quarter of the twentieth century.  Through a series of interviews with those who had lived in Sunburst, the students were able to amalgamate living oral history accounts that allowed the reader to have an intimate perspective about life in a mountain logging town in the early 1900s.

In 1976-1977, students planned the project that would simulate discussions akin to those printed in Rabun Gap Nacoochee School's Foxfire publications. By 1978, students met elderly individuals who thrived on their recollections of their early years at Sunburst.  The subsequent interviews, discussions, photographs, and drawings resulted in an example high quality investigative historical journalism.  

Bethel Rural Community Organization received permission in 2022 from Haywood County School Board to republish this valuable historical account forty-four years after the original publication and almost one hundred years after Sunburst's closure in 1925.

A portion of the proceeds from sale of the book is donated to Bethel Middle School.

Pigeon Valley

Cheryl Inman Haney's eighth grade classes at Bethel Junior High School researched the history of Bethel in a series of interviews, document searches, and visits to locations of historical interest.  The book, Pigeon Valley, is named for the extinct passenger pigeon that once blackened the skies during its migratory route through the area; Pigeon Valley is also an alternate name for Bethel.  

This 1992 publication, the work of twenty-seven students, details information about churches, schools, stores, post offices, mills, mines, individuals, families, houses, diaries, buildings, geographical and geological sites, and events.

In 2008, for the Haywood County Bicentennial, Bethel Rural Community Organization's Historic Preservation Committee received permission from Haywood County School Board to republish the book.  Pat Carr created a Table of Contents.  BRCO donated proceeds to the Bethel Middle School Library.  

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the book is donated to Bethel Middle School.

Front Cover

Back Cover