Duncan Falls is a census-designated place in southeastern Wayne Township, Muskingum County, Ohio, United States, located upon State Route 60 south of the city of Zanesville. It has a broadcast office subsequently the ZIP code 43734. Duncan Falls has a public library, a branch of the Muskingum County Library System.

Duncan Falls is named for an early hunter and trapper by the reveal of Major Duncan, who emigrated from Virginia and settled close a falls on the Muskingum River, approximately nine miles south of present-day Zanesville, in the 1790s. He reportedly skirmished when the local Shawnee beyond his traps, and according to legend was killed by the Shawnee though attempting to mad the river at the falls. Thus, his state became united with these falls. Other, more mundane explanations for the stock of the town’s name then exist.^{[citation needed]}

The harmony of the town, initially known as Duncan’s Falls, began gone the establishment of a hoard by James Taylor in 1825. Alanson Holderidge and Justice Depew, both erected blacksmith shops in this area 1828. A tavern was received by Jacob Hall in 1830. James Taylor normal a ferry across the Muskingum River at the falls in 1830. Although the county records by Everhart states that a clear bridge was build up across the river by the county government in 1831, the Zanesville Signal reported that the first bridge across the river did not arrive until 1875. James Taylor built a dam at the falls in 1832 to entice millers to settle in the town, and in 1835 the state dispensation improved the dam. In 1838, a four-story flour mill was erected by Lewis Dugan and William Bowen. As the area around the falls was now starting to develop, James Taylor formally platted a townsite in 1841 (Taylor had before platted Taylorsville, now known as Philo, on the new side of the river in 1833). By the 1840s, the dam and lock system was in place, allowing for steamboat travel, but raising the water level of the river correspondingly as to conceal the falls.

As of 1882, the town had on the order of 200 inhabitants, including one physician, a Dr. Mason.