My mother grew up at Hazel creek North Carolina before that area was established as the Smoky Mountains. Her father, Orson Burlingame was an engineer and managed the Ritter Lumber Company which was the major employer for that area until 1942 when all residence were required to leave. My grandfather and numerous relatives are buried at Bone Valley, the cemetary for that area. I first visited Bone Valley and Hazel Creek in about 1964 when my family took the tomb stone to my Grandfather's grave, with the help of the park service. Now the park service helps displaced families return to their relatives' graves and home sites every Sunday during the summer. The Hazel Creek Reunion is always the 4th Sunday of June. The park service meets us and about 100 other individuals at Fontana lake and ferries us to the mouth of Hazel Creek. We are met by various forms of transportation which will carry us to Bone Valley (sometimes we will walk the 6 miles). Along the way, the elderly people who spent their childhoods there, tell us stories of going to school, playing ball, working at the lumber mill. Few structures remain but if you know what to look for you can see where the homes were or the lumber yard. As for my grandparents' home, a small portion of a stone wall remains and the yellow iris still bloom. When we arrive at Bone Valley we have a church service, potluck dinner and decorate the graves. individually we will visit our families' homesites and talk with people who lived there or knew our relatives. My uncle is 86 and he made the reunion last year but for him many of his generation, the trip is getting too difficult. I have some very brief home movie footage of the family boat trip in 1964 and numerous photographs of my mother and her family at Hazel Creek in the 20's and 30's. If any of this is of interest, please contact me. thank you