In 'Ducktown Smoke', Duncan Maysilles offers a summary of the environmental devastation caused by sulfur dioxide pollution in a Southern Appalachian mountain basin in the late 19th century. A byproduct of the smelting practices of two copper mining giants operating in Tennessee, toxic smoke, combined with destructive logging by the industry, gradually laid waste to timber stocks and crops, most of which were in neighbouring Georgia. It also gave rise to decades of litigation - more than 250 private nuisance actions were filed against the copper companies in a 25-year period by residents, loggers, and farmers.