"Duncans Mills, Population 20" reads the sign along rural California Highway 116 near the Pacific Coast Highway. The old railroad depot, now a museum, serves as a focal point for this Victorian Village.

Originally part of a huge rancho granted to Don Muniz by the Mexican government, it then became the site of Alexander Duncans' sawmill when the first trains arrived in 1877.

By 1880, the town consisted of two hotels, a general store, saloon, meat market, blacksmith, livery stable and notion shop.

Soon, with the lumber industry boom, two trains left daily from San Francisco to Duncans Mills, carrying lumber with thousands of vacationers.

Lean times began with the Great Depression, and soon the trains stopped running and the town was abandoned.

In 1971 Duncans Mills went through an extensive renovation that breathed new life into the aging structures.