| Copper Basin | |
|---|---|
| Ducktown Basin | |
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Ducktown_train.jpg) Copper train in the basin (1939) | |
| Coordinates | 35°01′N 84°22′W / 35.02°N 84.36°W |
| Etymology | Copper, Ducktown |
| Region | Appalachia |
| Country |  United States |
| State(s) | Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia |
| Cities | Ducktown and Copperhill, Tennessee and McCaysville, Georgia |
| Characteristics | |
| On/Offshore | Onshore |
| Boundaries | Pack Mountain (E), Stansbury Mountain (N), Little Frog Mountain (NW), Big Frog Mountain (SW) |
| Part of | Appalachian Basin |
| Area | 60,000 acres (240 km2) |
| Hydrology | |
| River(s) | Ocoee River |
| Geology | |
| Basin type | Sedimentary depression, rather than a structural basin |
| Plate | North American |
| Orogeny | Taconic (Middle Ordovician) Caledonian, Acadian, Ouachita, Hercynian & Alleghenian orogenies (Paleozoic and younger) |
| Age | Paleozoic to Holocene |
| Field(s) | Burra Burra Mine |
The Copper Basin, also known as the Ducktown Basin, is a geological region located primarily in Polk County, Tennessee, that contains deposits of copper ore and covers approximately 60,000 acres (24,000 hectares). Located in the southeastern corner of Tennessee, small portions of the basin extend into Fannin County, Georgia, and Cherokee County, North Carolina. The basin is surrounded by the Cherokee National Forest, and the cities of Ducktown and Copperhill, Tennessee, and McCaysville, Georgia are located in the basin.
Copper was first discovered in the basin in 1843, and by the 1850s large mining operations, spearheaded by German-born businessman Julius Eckhardt Raht, were taking place. The mines were seized by the Confederacy during the American Civil War and were the source of about 90% of the copper used by the Confederate Army. After the Civil War, smelting operations, which were used to separate sulfur from the copper ore, resulted in acid rain in the area. Combined with the logging of nearby forests to fuel the smelters, this resulted in a massive environmental disaster that left the surrounding landscape barren for more than a century. Several mines, the largest of which was the Burra Burra Mine, operated in the basin.
By the 1950s, mining operations in the Copper Basin began to decline, with the final mine closing in 1987. Today, the Ducktown Basin Museum chronicles the geological record and history of the mining operations in the basin.