Historically, copper was the main industry of the Ocoee River Basin. To fuel the huge copper smelting plants a lot of wood was need so a massive logging operation was started that affectively cut down every tree with in a 50 mile radius. The smelting process then produced acid rain which killed all other vegetation leaving the earth a red clay desert.
In the 1920s a huge reforestation project began that has to this day planted over 16 million trees. Today with the mining stopped and the mine shafts flooded the Ocoee River area looks like any other typical national forest only with a unique past.