Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1871-08-01
FACTS ABOUT EAST TENNESSEE
a Letter From DucAtOyVn.
NO. XXXI.

The following letter from our own cor
respondentat Ducktown will give the read
er who is interested in such matters, some
idea of the immense wealth that has BEEN
and is yet to be developed III that locality :
ANY one on first visiting DucktOwn
would very naturally ask Where is the
tOlUH. and aUhere arc the fire thousand in
hdbHa7tS? Now the name "DucktOWno
is not applied to closely compact town
nor to any town at ALL as the name would
indicate. 1t applies to this whole mining
region comprising most of the basin"
mentioned before The inhabitants are
Wonderfully scattered owing to the loca-
ton of the different mines. The Hiwas-
see mine was the first opened and as the
result right around near it miners and la
borers erected their dwellings; others
from the surrounding country moved here
thinking it q more successful place for 9TH
er occupations; in process of time store
houses were erected and opened and now
this particular place has assumed about the
proportions of a town. 1t seems now to
be the acknowledged center, nOtwithstand-
ing mining operations have ceased here
and are being carried on altogether at other
points. The post office for all Ducktown
is here. AS these othe mines were opened
around them-being most of them a mile
or so apart. You now have the reason for
this scattered condition. DucktOwn en-
braces all these places and the name is not
applied to any particular one.
[ am informed that man by the name
of John Lemons found the first copper at
Ducktown in a small branch near the pres
ent town of Hiwassee. The specimen
found was a small piece of native copper
and at first was supposed by Mr.. Lemon to
be gold. This was about the year 1S48.
Whether this was at once made known
to any extent, or had anything to do with
the discovery Of the copper veins and open
inc of mines afterwards, is hardly estab-
lished. 1t is very probable, however that
it had, as it was only about three years
after this that a Mr.. Weaver took out sew
eral tons of black copper ore on the present
Hiwassee property, which was the first
taken out. This man Weaver bought up
all the boxes, barrels, &C., that he could in
the community, conveyed his ore in these
by wagon to Daltsn, shipped it to some
point North, and in all probability had it
worked up. To meet the expenses incur
red in this, he borrowed several thousand
dollars from gentleman then living near
here, of which money he still has the use,
and that without interest as he has not
been heard Of since.
The Hiwassee mine proper, in the year
1852, was first opened and worked by
Messrs. /, Ow and BOwden, the former from
New York, and the latter an Englishman.
Soon after this they sold the property to
Tracy & Co., composed mostly of New
Workers, and known here as the Hiwassee
Company, reserving shares, however, for
themselves. According to present infOr-
nation. this company worked this mine
till either the year 1855 or 1859, when they
abandoned it and sold to the present Burr
Burr Company, composed partly of the
same individuals as the Hiwassee COmpa-
ny, but chiefly of gentlemen from New
Orleans.
During this time they took out all eht
black ore, sunk a shaft 800 or $50 feet from
the surface and took out some yellow ore
-'Hyellow sulpburet." Judging from the
character of the mine, 1t must have aver
aged 100, 600 lbs. of fine copper" ingOt "
per month. 1t is said that this mine,
when abandoned, was still paying the
COMPANY, and that it will yet pay, but this
is doubted by many.
Following the vein stfucl. st HiWassee
east YOU come next to Burr-Burr mine.
This was opened in the spring of 1860.
From the time this State seeded up to
some time in 1853, it was worked for the
Confederate government, ~ rather they
worked it for themselves. IN this year
assS) operations at this mine ceased till