DUCKTOWN, Tenn. — The Ducktown Basin Museum began in a former general store where local residents and former Tennessee Mining Co. workers pooled their collections of photos and equipment from the mining era.

Thirty years later, the museum includes a myriad of mining and environmental displays in the former headquarters of the mining giant. Some of the buildings at the Burra Burra mine hold large pieces of equipment used during more than a century of copper mining in the basin.

“The museum began in 1978 at the McConnell Store and Grocery where the current Ducktown City Hall is located,” museum Director Ken Rush said. “Initially a local doctor had items given to him as barter that were put in the museum.”

The museum moved to its present site in 1982. Displays show the history of mining and acid production, everyday life in the Copper Basin and environment impacts.

Groups can tour the Hoist House, where miners entered the mine, had their lockers and spent much of the off time, and the shop building where mine equipment was repaired and equipment built. That building houses a mine locomotive, air-powered equipment and a blacksmith’s shop.

Special tours can be scheduled for areas where land left devastated from acid and deforestation has been reclaimed.

Mr. Rush said some local residents visit, including miners, but many more are tourists. He said the museum building and the land around it are owned by the state of Tennessee but operated by the museum’s organization .

“The museum provides the area with multiple benefits,” said Linda Caldwell, director of the area tourism and heritage organization called Tennessee Overhill. “It is the only museum on an industrial site in Tennessee, it is a place the community feels they can go to and relate to, and there are economic benefits from visitors coming to the area.”

Copperhill Mayor Herb Hood said anyone who wants to know the background of the Copper Basin should visit the museum.

“They do a tremendous job to make mining more interesting,” he said.