Socialist writer Grace Lumpkin (1892-1980) lived at Hazel Creek for a brief time in the early 1920s. The Hazel Creek community would become the inspiration for the fictitious community of Swain's Crossing in Lumpkin's 1932 novel, To Make My Bread. Although fictional, Swain's Crossing includes a place called Possum Hollow, a Siler's Cove (obviously influenced by Silers Bald), and a large mountain known as Thunderhead (Thunderhead Mountain crowns the crest of the Smokies between Hazel Creek and Cades Cove). Lumpkin also rehashes the story of an entire herd of cattle freezing to death, similar to the legend behind the naming of Bone Valley.