To Keep and Preserve

The landscape, as far as its appearance remains the same, provides a repository and a visual reminder of common history.  The rural lands of Bethel are, in this sense, a physical platform where stories can be affixed, and where, for those who know them, stories emanate forth.  In this respect, the significance of Bethel’s rural lands, and one reason…that they should be preserved as they are, lies in the role they play in preserving knowledge and awareness of history, in their ability to evoke stories that are important in themselves.

To Keep and Preserve:

The Farmland Preservation Efforts of the Bethel Rural Community Organization

 Taken from an ethnography written by Ginger Kowal for honors research in Anthropology, University of North Carolina – Asheville, 2007