Bethel is a rural area 17 miles west of Boone. It was, at one time, an area with a number of dairy farms, and you still can see a number of beautiful old two storey white farmhouses with milk barns and silos around. Now however, the predominant livestock is beef cattle with a fair number of draft horses. The prevailing crops are tobacco and feed corn, and many fields are cut for hay.
There are some houses of fairly new construction and you can see where someone had planned for housing developments, but Bethel is not on the way to anywhere, and that, and the economic downturn slowed those project to a virtual standstill.
The commerce in downtown Bethel is limited to the Stone Mountain General Store which sells feed, fetilizer, some of most of things you suddenly find you need, and also sells gas. On the way out Bethel Road toward US 321 there is Melanie's Auto Repair, where you can get your car inspected and buy seasonal produce.
Bethel has First Responders at the Volunteer Fire Department next to Stone Mountain Store and right across Rube's Creek and the street from them is Bethel Elementary School. Bethel School is an old stone building next to a cemetary. The playground and atheletic fields (except for the horeseshoe pits) are across Rush Branch Road.
