Station Street Christmas lights

The City of Duncan has a population of 5,035 and is roughly one-square mile.

The community is named after William Chalmers Duncan (born 1836 in Sarnia, Ontario). He arrived in Victoria in May 1862, then in August of that year he was one of the party of a hundred settlers which Governor Douglas took to Cowichan Bay.

Duncan settled close to the present city of Duncan. He married in 1876, and his son Kenneth became the first mayor of Duncan. A street bears his name today.

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, quite literally putting it on the map.

The city is about 60 kilometres from both Victoria to the south and Nanaimo to the north. (Wikipedia)