Charles Cathey has assisted BRCO for a number of years as the go-to person in the community who could trace elusive historical data about Bethel.  Cathey maintained an elaborate compendium of genealogical, archaeological, historical, and educational records about the area, his family, and Freemasonry. When BRCO needed a strong Appalachian voice with a native tone to narrate The Walking in the Footsteps of Those Who Came Before Us DVD, Cathey agreed to spend long hours reading into a microphone. The North Carolina Society of Historians presented BRCO’s Historic Preservation Committee with the Paul Green Multi-Media Award in 2012 for the DVD.  Cathey performed the same story-telling duty when he narrated BRCO’s Cold Mountain Heritage Driving Tour CD.  Cathey assisted with the fifth Cold Mountain Heritage Tour when he served as a tour guide at the Masonic Lodge #259/Gateway Club in Waynesville.  When the Historic Preservation Committee gave a day-long presentation to all of the History/Social Studies students at Bethel Middle School, Cathey was the featured speaker.  For his lifelong love of and appreciation for history as well as for his willingness to share his knowledge, Cathey deserved the first Pigeon Valley Award for Historic Preservation.

Norman Long, retired school teacher and local citizen who can trace his roots to early Haywood County, has maintained an active retirement by moving and restoring the historic Chinquapin Grove School that sat on his family’s property since the school’s inception in the 1860s.  Long’s meticulous attention to accuracy and detail has allowed him to recreate the original one-room schoolhouse building that evokes memories of a by-gone era.  Not satisfied with an empty structure, Long amassed a museum full of artifacts that define the history of the structure and the community.  The building served as a school, a church, a post office, and a home.  Memorabilia from each phase of the structure's existence fill every space, each corner, and entire walls.  Pictures and relics that have defined the community present the visitor with respect for the caretaker who has cared enough to cherish every bit of history with the reverence it deserves.  For his several year devotion to restoration of the school and collection of local artifacts, Long deserved the second Pigeon Valley Award for Historic Preservation.

2014 - Charles Cathey

Dick Alexander was 95 years old when BRCO’s Historic Preservation Committee and videographer Douglas Chambers collected some almost forgotten historical information about a place in the Bethel/Cruso area that played a unique role in Haywood County’s past and in the history of education in this country.  Alexander’s encyclopedic memories are captured in the DVD released by BRCO in 2015, From New College to Springdale.  In the interview, Alexander relays information about the role his family played in a unique experimental 1930s era teachers’ training program known as New College Community Experience of New College Branch of Columbia University’s Teachers College.  Cruso Community’s current Springdale Golf Course/Country Club was the setting for a trial preparatory approach to cultivating a high-quality institution based on the concept of liberal arts infused with a means of addressing the persistent problems of living. Alexander’s father, Dr. Thomas Alexander, instituted farm living as one of the five components of his singular educational training approach. The North Carolina Society of Historians presented Dick Alexander, BRCO, the videographer/editor, and individual Historic Preservation Committee members with the 2016 Multi-Media Award for the From New College to Springdale DVD. For his outstanding contributions to Bethel/Cruso/Haywood County history Dick Alexander deserved the third Pigeon Valley Award for Historic Preservation.

2016 - Dick Alexander

2015 - Norman Long

2017 - Ted Darrell Inman

Ted Darrell Inman passed away in 2008.  He was a BRCO member, a proud mountaineer who cherished his Inman, Haywood County, mountain, and Southern heritage.  This man's charm of originality and his passion for early American and local history allowed everyone who was fortunate enough to meet him to realize the past in the present.  

Ted Darrell assisted on numerous occasions during the research involved with writing of Books 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the 6 Legends, Tales & History of Cold Mountain books.  As long as he lived, he was a favorite participant for audiences attending the Cold Mountain Heritage Tour.  He also participated in the Inman section of BRCO's Walking in the Footsteps DVD.

Ted Darrell's devotion to preserving and restoring Inman Chapel, maintaining the Inman Cemetery, and organizing the Inman family reunions has assured that the chapel's heritage and the Inman family legacy would continue.

For all of us who knew him, we cherish that self-sufficiency and independence as well as our memories of him as an entertaining mountain character with a Haywood County drawl.  We also appreciate and thank him for his untempered obsession with history and the fact that he was so eager to share it with anyone who would listen.

2018 - Charles and Martha Trantham

The Historic Preservation Committee awarded Charles and Martha Trantham the fifth Pigeon Valley Award for Historic Preservation.  The Tranthams were recognized for their stewardship of the Lenoir's Creek Farm in Bethel, the longest continuing farm (1807) with the longest continuing herd of cattle (1849) in Haywood County.  The farm was originally owned by Waightstill Avery and was given as a wedding gift in 1806 to his daughter Selina Louisa and her husband, Colonel Thomas Lenoir, who became a three-term NC legislator.  The farm was eventually tended by son, Thomas Isaac Lenoir, who brought to the farm the herd of Red Devon cattle whose line continues today under the ownership of Martha and Charles Trantham.  

The Tranthams have partnered with BRCO on several fronts in ensuring that the history of the Lenoir's Creek Farm and cattle are preserved.  The farm was featured during several of BRCO's Cold Mountain Heritage Tours and continues as a site on the Cold Mountain Heritage Driving Tour CD.  Charles Trantham is a featured speaker on the Walking in the Footsteps of Those Who Came Before Us DVD that received the NC Society of Historians Paul Green Multi-Media Award in 2012. The Lenoir family history by Emily Terrell and Lenoir's Creek Farm's history is detailed in Books 3 and 6 of Legends, Tales & History of Cold Mountain, awarded the Barringer Award of Excellence from the NC Society of Historians in 2010. The two hundred acre Lenoir's Creek Farm is the site of BRCO's third local historic marker.  An art print of Lenoir's Creek Farm painted by Janice Swanger is available at our on-line catalog.