Editing Ducktown, Tennessee

{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2024}}
{{Infobox settlement
|official_name            = Ducktown, Tennessee
|settlement_type          = [[City]]
|nickname                 = 
|motto                    =

<!-- Images -->
|image_skyline            = Ducktown-Main-Street-block-tn.jpg
|imagesize                = 250px
|image_caption            = Buildings along Main Street in Ducktown
|image_flag               = 
|image_seal               =

<!-- Maps -->
|image_map                = File:Polk County Tennessee Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Ducktown Highlighted 4721740.svg
|mapsize                  = 250px
|map_caption              = Location of Ducktown in Polk County, Tennessee.
|image_map1               = 
|mapsize1                 = 
|map_caption1             =

<!-- Location -->
|subdivision_type         = [[List of sovereign states|Country]]
|subdivision_name         = United States
|subdivision_type1        = [[U.S. state|State]]
|subdivision_name1        = [[Tennessee]]
|subdivision_type2        = [[List of counties in Tennessee|County]]
|subdivision_name2        = [[Polk County, Tennessee|Polk]]

<!-- Government -->
|government_footnotes     = 
|government_type          = 
|leader_title             = 
|leader_name              = 
|leader_title1            = 
|leader_name1             = 
|established_title        = Established
|established_date         = 1840s
|established_title2       = Incorporated
|established_date2        = 1951<ref>''[http://www.state.tn.us/sos/bluebook/05-06/48-data.pdf Tennessee Blue Book]'', 2005-2006, pp. 618-625.</ref>
|named_for                = Cherokee village at the site prior to settlement<ref>Betty Duggan, "[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZBHL4YoxGTUC&dq=ducktown+tennessee+cherokee&pg=PA43 Voices from the Periphery: Reconstructing and Interpreting Post-Removal Histories of the Duck Town Cherokees]," ''Southern Indians and Anthropologists: Culture, Politics, and Identity'' (University of Georgia Press, 2002), p. 46.</ref>

<!-- Area -->
|unit_pref  = Imperial
|area_footnotes           = <ref name="TigerWebMapServer">{{cite web|title=ArcGIS REST Services Directory|url=https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer/5/query?where=STATE='47'&outFields=NAME,STATE,PLACE,AREALAND,AREAWATER,LSADC,CENTLAT,CENTLON&orderByFields=PLACE&returnGeometry=false&returnTrueCurves=false&f=json|publisher=United States Census Bureau|accessdate=October 15, 2022}}</ref>
|area_magnitude           = 
|area_total_km2           = 6.84
|area_land_km2            = 6.84
|area_water_km2           = 0.00
|area_total_sq_mi         = 2.64
|area_land_sq_mi          = 2.64
|area_water_sq_mi         = 0.00

<!-- Population -->
|population_as_of         = [[2020 United States Census|2020]]
|population_footnotes     = <ref name="USCensusDecennial2020CenPopScriptOnly"/>
|population_total         = 461
|population_density_km2   = 67.39
|population_density_sq_mi = 174.56

<!-- General information -->
|timezone                 = [[North American Eastern Time Zone|Eastern (EST)]]
|utc_offset               = -5
|timezone_DST             = EDT
|utc_offset_DST           = -4
|elevation_footnotes      = 
|elevation_m              = 528
|elevation_ft             = 1732
|coordinates              = {{coord|35|2|3|N|84|23|3|W|region:US_type:city|display=inline,title}}
|postal_code_type         = [[ZIP code]]
|postal_code              = 37326
|area_code                = [[Area code 423|423]]
|blank_name               = [[Federal Information Processing Standard|FIPS code]]
|blank_info               = 47-21740<ref name="GR2">{{cite web |url=https://www.census.gov |publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]] |access-date=January 31, 2008 |title=U.S. Census website }}</ref>
|blank1_name              = [[Geographic Names Information System|GNIS]] feature ID
|blank1_info              = 1283051<ref name="GR3">{{cite web|url=http://geonames.usgs.gov|access-date=January 31, 2008|title=US Board on Geographic Names|publisher=[[United States Geological Survey]]|date=October 25, 2007}}</ref>
|website                  = {{URL|www.cityofducktown.com}}
|footnotes                = 
|pop_est_as_of = 
|pop_est_footnotes = 
|population_est = 
}}

'''Ducktown'''  ({{langx|chr|ᎦᏬᏅᏱ|translit=Gawonvyi}}) is a city in [[Polk County, Tennessee]], United States. The population was 461 at the 2020 census and 475 at the 2010 census. It is included in the [[Cleveland, Tennessee metropolitan area]].

==History==
Ducktown is located in a geological region known as the [[Copper Basin (Tennessee)|Copper Basin]], and was the center of a major [[copper]]-mining district from 1847 until 1987.  The district also produced iron, sulfur and zinc as byproducts.<ref>Maurice Magee (1968) ''Geology and ore deposits of the Ducktown district, Tennessee'', in Ore Deposits of the United States 1933-1967, New York: American Institute of Mining Engineers, p.207-241.</ref>  Ducktown was the birthplace of Rockabilly Hall of Famer, [[Stan Beaver]].{{citation needed|date=September 2011}}

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.<ref>Henning Cohen, "Mark Twain's Sut Lovingood," ''Sut Lovingood Papers'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 1962), pp. 19-24.</ref>  Ducktown and several Ducktown-area features, such as [[Big Frog Mountain]] and the [[Ocoee River]] ("Oconee"), are mentioned in the Sut Lovingood tales.{{citation needed|date=September 2011}}

===Pre-mining period===

The [[Cherokee]] inhabited the Copper Basin as early as the late 18th century, well before the arrival of the first Euro-American settlers.  Their territory extended into northern Georgia. The Cherokee village of ''Gawonvyi'' (also known as Kawana)&mdash; which means “duck place” in English<ref name="Outdoors">{{cite web |last1=Outdoors |first1=Cascade |title=History Of Ocoee River & The Area |url=https://cascadeoutdoors.com/2019/08/15/history-of-ocoee-river-and-the-area/ |website=cascadeoutdoors.com |access-date=October 14, 2020}}</ref>&mdash; is believed to have been located at the confluence of the [[Ocoee River]] and Tumbling Creek.  The village's name was recorded on Cherokee annuity distribution rolls as "Ducktown" in 1799.  According to tradition, Ducktown was named after a Cherokee leader named Chief Duck.<ref name=barclay>R.E. Barclay, ''Ducktown Back in Raht's Time'' (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1946), 4-5.</ref>

In 1836, the Cherokee relinquished control of the Copper Basin to the U.S. government as part of lands they ceded in Tennessee and Georgia in the [[Treaty of New Echota]].  Although the U.S. removed many of the basin's Cherokee inhabitants in the march to Indian Territory, some avoided the roundup by hiding out in the surrounding mountains.  They would later help build the Old Copper Road (now part of US [[U.S. Route 64]]). In the 1840s and 1850s, Ducktown was called ''Hiwassee'' or ''Hiawassee,'' after the Cherokee name for a major river in the area. This name was subsequently adopted for the city's first major mining operation.<ref>Barclay, pp. 8-9.</ref>

===Early mining years===
[[File:Ducktown train.jpg|thumb|A train bringing copper ore out of the Ducktown mines, 1939. Smelter fumes 
have destroyed all vegetation and eroded the land.  Photo by [[Marion Post Wolcott]].]]

[[Native copper]] was discovered in 1843 by a prospector, presumably panning for gold.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ducktownbasinmuseum.com/history.html |title=Ducktown Basin Museum - Preserving the mining history of the Ducktown Basin |access-date=June 9, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150515192858/http://www.ducktownbasinmuseum.com/history.html |archive-date=May 15, 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref>  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 temporarily ceased when Union troops destroyed the copper [[Refining (metallurgy)|refinery]] and mill at [[Cleveland, Tennessee]] in 1863.  It resumed in 1866, and continued until 1878, when the mines had exhausted the shallow high-grade copper ores.

===Later years===
By 1906, the Tennessee Copper Company had begun constructing an acid reclamation plant near [[Copperhill, Tennessee]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.telliquah.com/History2.htm|title=Copper Basin Mining|last=Jack|website=www.telliquah.com|access-date=March 29, 2017}}</ref> to recover most of the [[sulfur]] in the form of [[sulfuric acid]] rather than releasing it to the atmosphere.  [[Froth flotation]] was added in the 1920s.

==Geography==
Ducktown is situated at the center of the Copper Basin (sometimes called the Ducktown Basin), a broad valley located in the southern [[Appalachian Mountains]] near the intersection of Tennessee, [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], and [[North Carolina]]. The Ducktown area is part of the [[Ocoee River]] watershed (which hosted the [[Canoeing at the 1996 Summer Olympics|Canoe slalom]] events for the [[1996 Summer Olympics]] in [[Atlanta]]), which passes through the Copper Basin a few miles southwest of Ducktown before entering its gorge. Ducktown is centered just north of the junction of Tennessee State Route 68, which connects the city to [[Madisonville, Tennessee|Madisonville]] to the north and [[Copperhill, Tennessee|Copperhill]] to the south, and [[U.S. Route 64]], which connects the city to [[Cleveland, Tennessee|Cleveland]] (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 {{convert|1.9|sqmi|km2}}, all land.

The [[Ducktown Basin Museum]], located on the site of the [[Burra Burra Mine (Tennessee)|Burra Burra Mine]] in Ducktown, chronicles the geology and history of the mining activities in the basin.

==Demographics==
{{US Census population
|1890= 221
|1960= 741
|1970= 562
|1980= 583
|1990= 421
|2000= 427
|2010= 475
|2020= 461
|footnote=Sources:<ref name="GR9">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census.html|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=March 4, 2012|title=Census of Population and Housing: Decennial Censuses}}</ref><ref name=CensusPopEst>{{cite web|title=Incorporated Places and Minor Civil Divisions Datasets: Subcounty Resident Population Estimates: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2012|url=https://www.census.gov/popest/data/cities/totals/2012/SUB-EST2012.html|work=Population Estimates|publisher=U.S. Census Bureau|access-date=December 11, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130611010502/http://www.census.gov/popest/data/cities/totals/2012/SUB-EST2012.html|archive-date=June 11, 2013}}</ref><ref name="USCensusDecennial2020CenPopScriptOnly">{{cite web|url=https://api.census.gov/data/2020/dec/pl?get=P1_001N,NAME&for=place:*&in=state:47&key=5ccd0821c15d9f4520e2dcc0f8d92b2ec9336108|title=Census Population API|publisher=United States Census Bureau|accessdate=October 15, 2022}}</ref>
}}

===2020 census===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:right"
|+Ducktown racial composition<ref>{{Cite web|title=Explore Census Data|url=https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?g=1600000US4721740&tid=DECENNIALPL2020.P2|access-date=December 25, 2021|website=data.census.gov}}</ref>
!scope="col"| Race
!scope="col"| Number
!scope="col"| Percentage
|-
!scope="row"| [[White (U.S. Census)|White]] (non-Hispanic)
| 423
| 91.76%
|-
!scope="row"| [[Native American (U.S. Census)|Native American]]
| 7
| 1.52%
|-
!scope="row"| [[Asian (U.S. Census)|Asian]]
| 8
| 1.74%
|-
!scope="row"| [[Race (United States Census)|Other/Mixed]]
| 23
| 4.99%
|}
As of the [[2020 United States census]], there were 461 people, 174 households, and 120 families residing in the city.

===2010 census===
As of the [[census]]<ref name="GR2" /> of 2010, there were 475 people, 209 households, and 105 families residing in the city. The population density was {{convert|221.5|PD/sqmi|PD/km2|sp=us|adj=off}}. There were 230 housing units at an average density of {{convert|119.3|/sqmi|/km2|sp=us|adj=off}}. The racial makeup of the city was 96.21% [[White (U.S. Census)|White]], 0.21% [[African American (U.S. Census)|Black or African American]], 0.21% from other races, and 3.37% White and [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]]. [[Hispanic (U.S. Census)|Hispanic]] or [[Latino (U.S. Census)|Latino]] of any race were 0.21% of the population.

[[File:Ducktown-from-Hiwassee-Street-tn.jpg|210px|left|thumb|View across Ducktown, with Big Frog Mountain in the distance]]

There were 209 households, out of which 16.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.8% were [[Marriage|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.

==See also==
* [[Copper Basin (Tennessee)]]
* [[Burra Burra Mine (Tennessee)]]
* [[Kimsey Junior College]]
* [[Ocoee Whitewater Center]]

==References==
{{clear}}
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}

{{Polk County, Tennessee}}
{{Cherokee}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:Cities in Tennessee]]
[[Category:Cities in Polk County, Tennessee]]
[[Category:Cleveland metropolitan area, Tennessee]]
[[Category:Copper Basin (Tennessee)]]
[[Category:Mining communities in Tennessee]]