The Copper Basin was the topic of a travel article in the New York Times. Titled “Up From the Mines in Tennessee,” the article by free lancer Chris Dixon talks about the changes in the area as it transformed from red hills to tourist attraction. The basin’s most optimistic newcomers include artists, outdoor enthusiasts and a small cadre of Atlanta real estate developers who have specialized in revitalizing neighborhoods around the Cabbagetown district of Atlanta,” it states. “Copperhill’s new life could hardly have been imagined 50 years ago,” Dixon wrote, describing the environmental devastation, the end of mining in 1987, and the flood in 1990.

Dixon interviewed several of those optimistic newcomers, including John Blankenship of Copperhill; Councilman and cabin owner Mike Williams; real estate agents/developers Scott Nichols and Kay Jones; Olympic gold medalist Joe Jacobi and wife Lisa, who left a job at CNN and is now a website developer; Richard and Patricia Scott of Copperhill Country Cabins, who also left the big city media world; photographer Kevin Nickell, who opened a shop in Copperhill; Gil Carter, who is opening an outdoor outfitting store; and Ron Wiggins with Glen Springs Holdings.

The article talks about the changes that have taken place, tourist attractions like train excursions, Ducktown Basin Museum and Pickin’ in the Park, and the small but growing collection of antiques and craft shops, and restaurants. Dixon also spoke with Barbara Beaver, who grew up in Copperhill and remembers “how we used to get out and sweep our yards a certain way to keep them neat and clean because we didn’t have grass.” Beaver has returned and has made it her mission to resurrect the old cemetery where many of the Copper Basin’s founders are buried.

The article notes that Beaver  has joined a trickle of other retirees, second-home buyers and entrepreneurs who are renovating inexpensive old homes, restaurants and shops while a remarkable cleanup of the mine site is nearing completion, ushering in what is hoped will be a far greener future for what was once one of the most devastated places in North America.

Richard Scott said the writer comes to the Ocoee to kayak and thought the area’s story would make a good article.