Ducktown trip planner

Ducktown is a city in Polk County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 427 at the 2000 census and 475 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Cleveland Metropolitan Statistical Area.HistoryDucktown was the center of a major copper-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.The pre-mining periodThe Cherokee 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.