Kephart's book Our Southern Highlanders (published in 1913) was the first widely read study of Southern Appalachian culture. The fourth chapter of the book, A Bear Hunt In the Smokies, recounts a typical bear-hunting excursion to the crest of the Smokies. Three members of the hunting party— Granville Calhoun, Little John Cable, and Doc Jones— were children of early Hazel Creek pioneers. The hunting party stayed at a herding shack built by Jesse Crate Hall along the crest near Chestnut Bald. Kephart was fascinated by the crest of the Western Smokies, which in the early 1900s was a giant grassy bald.