The Best of Ellijay, Blue Ridge & Jasper Funpaper issue 7 | Page 38

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rowing up in a small
mining town sounds
like it might be something out of a western novel.
It was actually how I grew
up in Ducktown, TN. I remember, as do many, the red hills that once made up the
hills of Ducktown, Isabella, Copperhill and surrounding
areas. I remember hearing the mining whistle warning of
upcoming blasts, then the sound of "thunder" as the blast
went off miles away from my house. Sure, I didn't really
understand it all when I was a kid. I didn't really know the
magic of the time I was living in. I didn't know that one
day it would be gone; but it is now...all except the memories. Well fortunately those memories are kept alive at the
Ducktown Basin Museum on top of Burra Hill in Ducktown,
TN. You can't see this tiny building from the road, only the
sign, but when you wind around to the top of the hill,
passing the Hoist House and actual mining memoribilia on
the way, you will see this little white building that used to
be a part of the mining era itself, now sitting quietly on
top of the hill waiting for guests to come in.
It might surprise you when you see it. There can't be
much in there, can there? Well, I'm here to tell ya, it is
packed full of history, mining equipment, pictures, documents, films, books, gifts, but mainly history; beautiful, irreplaceable history of what made up the Tri-State
communities. Ken Rush, the curator of our local museum is
full of knowledge. You want dates, facts, stories (both sad
and funny), this man knows it all and is more than happy
to share it with you. I have known Ken for years, as well as
Dawna and Joyce, the office staff and all the friends I
share the museum Board of Directors seats with. What a
crew we have. The beauty of it is, we all love
our little town. We all love our history. We
all love our little museum.
Every time I walk in there, I see pictures
of people I remember from my childhood,
many already passed on. I see pictures of
events that used to fill our streets, like First
Tuesday, where I used to clog my little legs
off with all my friends from the Ducktown
Sweetheart Cloggers. Just thinking of things
like that and Christmas in Ducktown where
colored lights zig-zagged there way up the
main street of Ducktown. It was breathtaking
at how beautiful that one street could become!
It was filled with carolers, dancers and happy,
happy faces, most belonging in some way to a
miner or miner's relative. Yes, our little town
was once as large as a large metropolitan city,
at least in my eyes. Again, at the time, I didn't
fully realize the magic of our town.
Yes, there are pictures and memories of all
these things and more inside the museum. There
are memories to the great people of the Basin
such as family doctor Dr. William Lee and his
wife Lorraine. They are true celebrities of our
town, now both in their nineties, and forever respected
and revered inside the Ducktown Basin Museum.
Sure every place has history. Sure many places have
museums, and sure everyone has their own stories of the
past. But I'm here to tell you, there's something special
about Ducktown. There's something special about the
Ducktown Basin Museum. There's just that special "feeling" you get when you step out of your car and look down

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from the overlook at
the once barren red
hills, now nearly
covered with pine
trees. There's just
something really
special about walking into this tiny
building and knowing that every trace
of the community's
foundation is found
inside its walls.
There's something
sacred about the
faces that stare back
at you from the pictures; miners and their families, and the community they formed. There is something eerily
beautiful about the images of the old mining
structures that once made up our landscape, of
which only a few remain. It's just spectacularly
heart-warming and wrenching to those of us
who remember how it once was and how it will
always be in our hearts.
Come see what I'm talking about. Come
shake hands with the past that made our community what it is today. There is a wonderful
treasure sitting on top of Burra Burra in Ducktown. It's called the Ducktown Basin Museum.

For more information about the museum please call the
office at 423-496-5778 or visit http://www.ducktownbasinmuseum.com/.
- Jennifer Danner

If corn oil comes from corn, where does baby oil come from?