Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Duncan Falls, OH

Duncan Falls is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Wayne Township, Muskingum County, Ohio, strung along State Route 60 on the Muskingum River about 9 miles south of Zanesville.

Duncan Falls is named for Major Duncan, a hunter and trapper who emigrated from Virginia and settled near a falls on the Muskingum River in the 1790s; according to legend, he was killed by Shawnee warriors while trying to cross the river at the falls, and his name stuck to them.

The settlement of Duncan Falls began in 1825 when James Taylor opened a store there; Taylor started a ferry across the Muskingum in 1830, built a dam at the falls in 1832, and formally platted the townsite in 1841.

A four-story flour mill was built at Duncan Falls in 1838, and the state-backed dam-and-lock system soon let steamboats work the river — but it raised the water level enough to hide the very falls the town was named for.

Around 1890, an order from the U.S. Postal Service shortened the community's name from Duncan's Falls to Duncan Falls.

Much of Duncan Falls was damaged by the severe Muskingum River flood of 1913, and the completion of the Philo power plant across the river in 1924 provided a badly needed economic lifeline.

The population of Duncan Falls was 898 at the 2020 census, and the CDP covers 1.32 square miles, including a stretch of the Muskingum River where Salt Creek flows in at its eastern edge.

Duncan Falls keeps its own post office (ZIP Code 43734) and has a public library that is a branch of the Muskingum County Library System.