Incident at Hawk's Hill is based on a true story. A Benjamin MacDonald did live with a badger for a couple of months.

But little documentation exists for these events, so Eckert uses his own method to write what might be called a historical novel. He weaves his research about badgers and his knowledge of the incident into a form that is indistinguishable from a novel. Eckert strays from the conventions of history by turning real people into literary characters. But, in keeping with the author's usual preference for realism, the badger is not a character. Eckert refuses to anthropomorphize the animal—that is, to give human characteristics to it—and the result is a story that reads as much like fact as it does like fiction.