After lunch some of the group moved on to the Ducktown Museum, where they learned about mining. Ducktown was the center of a major copper-mining district from 1847 until 1987. The first smelter was built in the Ducktown district in 1854. The hard work involved with mining and the output or leftovers from the mine was evident in the large mounds that were on the site. The method used to smelt the copper, sulfur and iron ore released large quantities of sulfur dioxide, which killed much of the vegetation in the immediate area by creating acid rain - weak sulfuric acid. Ten square miles of the hills around these mining operations were totally devoid of vegetation. A square mile of that devastated landscape has deliberately not been reforested to allow visitor todays to see a hint of how bad it was.
