Duncan

History

The community is named after William Chalmers Duncan After going off on several gold rushes, Duncan settled close to the present City of Duncan. He married in 1876, and his son Kenneth became the first Mayor of Duncan. There is a Kenneth Street, as well as a Duncan Street, in the City. Duncan's farm was named Alderlea, and this was the first name of the adjacent settlement. In August 1886, the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway was opened. No stop had been scheduled at Alderlea for the inaugural train bearing Sir John A. Macdonald and Robert Dunsmuir. However, at Duncan's Crossing, the level crossing nearest Alderlea, a crowd of 2,000 had assembled around a decorated arch and the train came to an unplanned halt. Initially part of the District of North Cowichan, Duncan felt its needs as an urban settlement in the largely rural municipality were not being met, in particular the need to have proper roadways. After a particularly wet winter in 1911–1912, a vote was held to make Duncan a distinct city, and it was incorporated on 4 March 1912. With the enlargement of North Cowichan in the ensuing decades, there was an effort to re-unite the two municipalities, though a referendum on the matter in June 1978 was soundly defeated. In the early 1900s, Duncan's Chinatown was the social centre for the Cowichan Valley's Chinese population. Chinatown was concentrated in a single block in the southwestern corner of Duncan. At its largest point, Duncan's Chinatown included six Chinese families and 30 merchants who supplied goods and services to the loggers, millworkers, cannery and mine workers in the area. The city tore the buildings down in 1969 to build a new law courts complex. Some materials from the original buildings were used at Whippletree Junction. In the 1980s, the city was…

Most-observed species

• Species 9510564

  Species 9510564
  11,654
• Dark-eyed Junco

  Junco hyemalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  10,808
• Spotted Towhee

  Pipilo maculatus Swainson, 1827 · Aves
  10,777
• Chestnut-backed Chickadee

  Poecile rufescens (J.K.Townsend, 1837) · Aves
  10,182
• Common Raven

  Corvus corax Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  9,044
• Anna's Hummingbird

  Calypte anna (R.Lesson, 1829) · Aves
  8,962
• Song Sparrow

  Melospiza melodia (A.Wilson, 1810) · Aves
  8,340
• Northern Flicker

  Colaptes auratus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  7,175

Most recent

• M 2.86 — 2026-06-08
  2 km ESE of Oak Harbor, Washington
• M 2.56 — 2026-05-29
  7 km ENE of Ferndale, Washington
• M 2.7 — 2026-04-27
  5 km N of Anacortes, Washington
• M 2.7 — 2026-01-26
  12 km WSW of Anacortes, Washington
• M 2.85 — 2025-10-22
  8 km SW of Port Angeles, Washington
• M 2.7 — 2025-10-21
  10 km SE of Salt Spring Island, Canada