Ducktown, Tennessee
Encyclopedia
Ducktown is a city in Polk County, Tennessee
, United States
. The population was 427 at the 2000 census. It is included in the Cleveland, Tennessee
Metropolitan Statistical Area
.
near the point where Tennessee, Georgia
, and North Carolina
meet. The Ducktown area is part of the Ocoee River watershed, which passes through the Copper Basin a few miles southwest of Ducktown before entering its scenic gorge. Ducktown is centered just north of the junction of Tennessee State Route 68, which connects the city to Madisonville
to the north and Copperhill
to the south, and U.S. Route 64
, which connects the city to Cleveland, Tennessee
(via the Ocoee River Gorge) to the west and Murphy, North Carolina
to the east.
According to the United States Census Bureau
, the city has a total area of 1.9 square miles (4.9 km²), all of it land.
-mining district from 1847 until 1987. The district also produced iron, sulfur and zinc as byproducts. Ducktown was the birthplace of Rockabilly Hall of Famer, Stan Beaver
.
Literary historian Ben Harris McClary suggests that a Ducktown-area farmer named William "Sut" Miller (d. 1858) was the inspiration for the George Washington Harris
character, Sut Lovingood. Ducktown and several Ducktown-area features, such as Big Frog Mountain
and the Ocoee River ("Oconee"), are mentioned in the Sut Lovingood tales.
inhabited the Copper Basin as early as the late 18th century, well before the arrival of the first Euro-American settlers. The Cherokee village of Kawana— which means "duck town" in English— is believed to have been located at the confluence of the Ocoee River and Tumbling Creek. The village's name first appears on Cherokee annuity distribution rolls as "Ducktown" in 1799. According to tradition, Ducktown was named after a Cherokee leader named Chief Duck.
In 1836, the Cherokee relinquished control of the Copper Basin to the U.S. government as part of the Treaty of New Echota
. Although the U.S. removed many of the basin's Cherokee inhabitants, several managed to avoid detection by hiding out in the surrounding mountains. They would later help build the Old Copper Road (now part of US-64). In the 1840s and 1850s, Ducktown was called "Hiwassee" or "Hiawassee," which was subsequently the name applied to the city's first major mining operation.
. The first shipment of copper ore was taken out on muleback in 1847. More than 30 mining companies were incorporated between 1852 and 1855 to mine copper at Ducktown. Development was accelerated by a road built in 1853 connecting the area with Cleveland, Tennessee
. The first smelter was built in the Ducktown district in 1854.
Mining ceased when Union troops destroyed the copper refinery
and mill at Cleveland, Tennessee
in 1863. Mining resumed in 1866, and continued until 1878, when the mines had exhausted the shallow high-grade copper ores.
ores, which previous companies were unable to work successfully. The ores was treated by open roasting
in which the ore was piled in large stacks with alternating layers of wood, and burned. The method released large quantities of sulfur dioxide
, which killed much of the vegetation in the immediate area by creating acidified rain - weak sulfuric acid. The hills around these mining operations are still devoid of vegetation.
in the form of sulfuric acid
rather than releasing it to the atmosphere. Froth flotation
was added in the 1920s.
of 2010, there were 487 people, 209 households, and 105 families residing in the city. The population density
was 221.5 people per square mile (85.4/km²). There were 230 housing units at an average density of 119.3 per square mile (46.0/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 97.19% White, 0.94% Native American, and 1.87% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.94% of the population.
There were 209 households out of which 16.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.8% were married couples
living together, 7.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 49.3% were non-families. 46.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 27.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.04 and the average family size was 2.92.
In the city the population was spread out with 17.3% under the age of 18, 7.5% from 18 to 24, 21.8% from 25 to 44, 26.2% from 45 to 64, and 27.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 49 years. For every 100 females there were 75.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 69.7 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $18,125, and the median income for a family was $27,045. Males had a median income of $25,833 versus $19,688 for females. The per capita income
for the city was $12,113. About 20.4% of families and 25.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 30.4% of those under age 18 and 37.6% of those age 65 or over.
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The population was 427 at the 2000 census. It is included in the Cleveland, Tennessee
Cleveland, Tennessee
Cleveland is a city in Bradley County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 41,285 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Bradley County...
Metropolitan Statistical Area
Cleveland, Tennessee metropolitan area
The Cleveland, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of two counties in southeast Tennessee – Bradley and Polk – anchored by the city of Cleveland...
.
Geography
Ducktown is located at 35°2′3"N 84°23′3"W (35.034162, -84.384275). The city is situated at the center of the Copper Basin (sometimes called the Ducktown Basin), a broad valley located in the southern Appalachian MountainsAppalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...
near the point where Tennessee, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, and North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
meet. The Ducktown area is part of the Ocoee River watershed, which passes through the Copper Basin a few miles southwest of Ducktown before entering its scenic gorge. Ducktown is centered just north of the junction of Tennessee State Route 68, which connects the city to Madisonville
Madisonville, Tennessee
Madisonville is a city in Monroe County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 3,939 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Monroe County and the location of Hiwassee College.-Geography:...
to the north and Copperhill
Copperhill, Tennessee
Copperhill is a city in Polk County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 511 at the 2000 census. It is included in the Cleveland, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
to the south, and U.S. Route 64
U.S. Route 64
U.S. Route 64 is an east–west United States highway that runs for 2,326 miles from eastern North Carolina to just southwest of the Four Corners in northeast Arizona. The western terminus is at U.S. Route 160 in Teec Nos Pos, Arizona. The highway's eastern terminus is at NC 12 and U.S. Route...
, which connects the city to Cleveland, Tennessee
Cleveland, Tennessee
Cleveland is a city in Bradley County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 41,285 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Bradley County...
(via the Ocoee River Gorge) to the west and Murphy, North Carolina
Murphy, North Carolina
-Household Income:The median income for a household in the town was $24,952, and the median income for a family was $35,234. Males had a median income of $30,395 versus $16,908 for females. The per capita income for the town was $16,926...
to the east.
According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the city has a total area of 1.9 square miles (4.9 km²), all of it land.
History
Ducktown was the center of a major copperCopper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
-mining district from 1847 until 1987. The district also produced iron, sulfur and zinc as byproducts. Ducktown was the birthplace of Rockabilly Hall of Famer, Stan Beaver
Stan Beaver
Stan Beaver had a hit with "I Got a Rocket in My Pocket" in 1963 .-Career:Beaver's musical career began when he appeared on his father's television show in Atlanta, Georgia, when he was 5 years old and he sang "River of Memory".His only hit "I Got a Rocket in My Pocket" is now a collector's item...
.
Literary historian Ben Harris McClary suggests that a Ducktown-area farmer named William "Sut" Miller (d. 1858) was the inspiration for the George Washington Harris
George Washington Harris
George Washington Harris was an American humorist best known for his character, "Sut Lovingood," an Appalachian backwoods reveler fond of telling tall tales...
character, Sut Lovingood. Ducktown and several Ducktown-area features, such as Big Frog Mountain
Big Frog Mountain
Big Frog Mountain is a mountain located in southeastern Tennessee in the Big Frog Wilderness, within the Cherokee National Forest. At tall, there is no higher point west of Big Frog Mountain until the Big Bend in Texas or the Black Hills of South Dakota...
and the Ocoee River ("Oconee"), are mentioned in the Sut Lovingood tales.
The pre-mining period
The CherokeeCherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
inhabited the Copper Basin as early as the late 18th century, well before the arrival of the first Euro-American settlers. The Cherokee village of Kawana— which means "duck town" in English— is believed to have been located at the confluence of the Ocoee River and Tumbling Creek. The village's name first appears on Cherokee annuity distribution rolls as "Ducktown" in 1799. According to tradition, Ducktown was named after a Cherokee leader named Chief Duck.
In 1836, the Cherokee relinquished control of the Copper Basin to the U.S. government as part of the Treaty of New Echota
Treaty of New Echota
The Treaty of New Echota was a treaty signed on December 29, 1835, in New Echota, Georgia by officials of the United States government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction, known as the Treaty Party...
. Although the U.S. removed many of the basin's Cherokee inhabitants, several managed to avoid detection by hiding out in the surrounding mountains. They would later help build the Old Copper Road (now part of US-64). In the 1840s and 1850s, Ducktown was called "Hiwassee" or "Hiawassee," which was subsequently the name applied to the city's first major mining operation.
Early mining years
The copper was discovered in 1843 by a prospector, presumably panning for gold, who found nuggets of native copperNative copper
Copper, as native copper, is one of the few metallic elements to occur in uncombined form as a natural mineral, although most commonly occurs in oxidized states and mixed with other elements...
. The first shipment of copper ore was taken out on muleback in 1847. More than 30 mining companies were incorporated between 1852 and 1855 to mine copper at Ducktown. Development was accelerated by a road built in 1853 connecting the area with Cleveland, Tennessee
Cleveland, Tennessee
Cleveland is a city in Bradley County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 41,285 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Bradley County...
. The first smelter was built in the Ducktown district in 1854.
Mining ceased when Union troops destroyed the copper refinery
Refinery
A refinery is a production facility composed of a group of chemical engineering unit processes and unit operations refining certain materials or converting raw material into products of value.-Types of refineries:Different types of refineries are as follows:...
and mill at Cleveland, Tennessee
Cleveland, Tennessee
Cleveland is a city in Bradley County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 41,285 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Bradley County...
in 1863. Mining resumed in 1866, and continued until 1878, when the mines had exhausted the shallow high-grade copper ores.
Open Roasting of Copper Ore
In 1889, the Ducktown Sulphur, Copper, and Iron Company bought the properties, and began producing copper and iron from the deeper high-sulfideSulfide
A sulfide is an anion of sulfur in its lowest oxidation state of 2-. Sulfide is also a slightly archaic term for thioethers, a common type of organosulfur compound that are well known for their bad odors.- Properties :...
ores, which previous companies were unable to work successfully. The ores was treated by open roasting
Roasting (metallurgy)
Roasting is a step in the processing of certain ores. More specifically, roasting is a metallurgical process involving gas–solid reactions at elevated temperatures with the goal of purifying the metal component. Often before roasting, the ore has already been partially purified, e.g. by froth...
in which the ore was piled in large stacks with alternating layers of wood, and burned. The method released large quantities of sulfur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide is the chemical compound with the formula . It is released by volcanoes and in various industrial processes. Since coal and petroleum often contain sulfur compounds, their combustion generates sulfur dioxide unless the sulfur compounds are removed before burning the fuel...
, which killed much of the vegetation in the immediate area by creating acidified rain - weak sulfuric acid. The hills around these mining operations are still devoid of vegetation.
Later Years
Open roasting was replaced by pyritic smelting in 1904, and the smelters began recovering the most of the sulfurSulfur
Sulfur or sulphur is the chemical element with atomic number 16. In the periodic table it is represented by the symbol S. It is an abundant, multivalent non-metal. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with chemical formula S8. Elemental sulfur is a bright yellow...
in the form of sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid is a strong mineral acid with the molecular formula . Its historical name is oil of vitriol. Pure sulfuric acid is a highly corrosive, colorless, viscous liquid. The salts of sulfuric acid are called sulfates...
rather than releasing it to the atmosphere. Froth flotation
Froth flotation
Froth flotation is a process for selectively separating hydrophobic materials from hydrophilic. This is used in several processing industries...
was added in the 1920s.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2010, there were 487 people, 209 households, and 105 families residing in the city. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 221.5 people per square mile (85.4/km²). There were 230 housing units at an average density of 119.3 per square mile (46.0/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 97.19% White, 0.94% Native American, and 1.87% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.94% of the population.
There were 209 households out of which 16.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.8% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 7.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 49.3% were non-families. 46.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 27.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.04 and the average family size was 2.92.
In the city the population was spread out with 17.3% under the age of 18, 7.5% from 18 to 24, 21.8% from 25 to 44, 26.2% from 45 to 64, and 27.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 49 years. For every 100 females there were 75.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 69.7 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $18,125, and the median income for a family was $27,045. Males had a median income of $25,833 versus $19,688 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the city was $12,113. About 20.4% of families and 25.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 30.4% of those under age 18 and 37.6% of those age 65 or over.