DUCKBURG

(Detectivistic Unscientific Causeristic Kickshaw 'Bout Utterly Redundant Gewgaw)

Where is Duckburg?
This is perhaps the most frequently asked question regarding Barks' comic book stories. And with good reason, because the town seems to be quite elusive and hard to put on a map. When asked, Barks always placed Duckburg in the fictitious state of Calisota, and that is not too much help in locating the town.

But, never fear. Luckily, Barks gave us numerous hints as to where one may find the locality and it is just a simple matter of reading the comics through a magnifying glass.
So let's go solve the problem!

THE START
Once, Barks revealed in an interview how Duckburg was born: That came about just out of necessity. I couldn't imagine the Disney Studios being the residence of all these people and I finally just thought, well, why not call it Duckburg because that's where the ducks lived. Unlucky for us Barks never drew any maps showing the location of Duckburg. One thing we do know, however, is that Duckburg must be somewhere in USA because all Duckburgians speaks American English!!!
Now we have really narrowed it down!!!

THE FALSE EVIDENCES
First of all, let's get the red herrings out of the way. Barks was a very shrewd guy and it seems that he tried his best to mislead us. Just look here: FC0328 Old California Absolutely no evidence in the story supports the theory that the ducks actually live in California. For all we know they are just on sightseeing! MOC04 Maharajah Donald It is mentioned that the ducks come from Burbank, California, but this is obviously untrue. They come from Duckburg, you know! DD45 The Dogcatcher In the splashpanel we can clearly see that Hentown and Catville are located next to Duckburg but there are no such towns in USA! U$07 The Seven Cities of Cibola The ducks are in the vicinity of Indio town which is located only a car ride away from Duckburg but which of the US-Indio's is meant?
MOC04	DD45
It seems that Barks had foreseen this great interest in the whereabouts of Duckburg and deliberately tried to make it hard for us. He would have his little joke but we are not caving in!!!

THE ELIMINATION PROCESS
Knowing at least that Duckburg is situated somewhere inside the boundaries of the United States we can rule out some of the states. Because through the years the ducks have visited the following during vacations and such:
Alabama (U$14) Alaska (FC0062, FC0256, FC0456, U$19, U$35, U$59) Arizona (U$19, WDCS058, WDCS246) Colorado (U$07) Florida (FC0062, U$14, U$32, WDCS147) Hawaii (U$04) Indiana (U$14) Mississippi (U$11, U$GTD) New Mexico (WDCS081) New York (WDCS049, WDCS142) Ohio (FC0108, U$28) Washington (WDCS202)
Hawaii			Washington
Bad luck! That was only 12 states. Not very helpful after all...

THE GUMSHOE METHOD
There are multiple and indisputable indications that Duckburg is located by the ocean because the ducks made several boat trips to different faraway places from the harbour. That must mean that it can be found on either the west coast or the east coast. Let's examine the evidence:
Duckburg is on the Pacific: Peru (FC0223) Australia (U$11) Indo-China (U$20) Asia (U$46, U$70) South Seas (MOC41, WDCS312) India (MOC04) Mexico, Acapulco (WDCS053) Ecuador (WDCS228) South Pacific (U$08, WDCS211) Taro Island (WDCS291)	U$37 Deep Down Doings The ducks envision a map of rivers flowing into an ocean. Being at the westside of the land the ocean must be the Pacific, i.e. Duckburg is located on the west coast	Duckburg is on the Atlantic: Jamaica (FC0495) Atlantic (U$05) Europe (U$10) Africa (SF2, U$15) Cape of Good Hope (U$25) Sahara (U$31) Italy (U$40)
Well, it seems that the detective approach has failed miserably, because we are not even able to place Duckburg on either the left or the right of the map...

THE SCIENTIFIC APPROACH

Okay then. Let's see what we can deduct from the stories themselves:

FC0108 Terror of the River
Donald and the nephews travel to Floodout, Ohio, which is situated 2,400 miles from Duckburg.

WDCS0049
The ducks are on their way home from Niagara Falls and passes a sign which reads: Duckburg 2,096 miles.

Lovely!
Now we have both fixed-points and coordinates to be reckoned with.

Re. fixed-points:
We don't really know where Floodout is in Ohio but we know exactly where Niagara Falls is. By simple retraction we can measure the distance to Floodout as being 304 miles. This means that Floodout must be right down in the far southwest corner of Ohio. Are you following this?

Re. coordinates:
As Ohio is a longer distance from Niagara our coordinates should cross somewhere in the Northeast. Northeast??? But that's in Canada!
Yes, it is a pleasure to announce that the sly Barks has placed Duckburg smack in the region of Labrador. Tada-a-a-a!

But according to the Chief Area Postmaster there is no town by the name of Duckburg in his district. If you just had the zipcode, he uttered helpfully, then I could have helped you. Alas, we have no such thing, and so our scientific investigation falls apart...

THE LAST WORD
Let's face it: We are beaten! But, luckily, Barks at long last pinpointed the whereabouts of Duckburg in an interview: It changed every time I had a story. It was a village, it was a big city. It was a city on the ocean, and a city in the desert. It was wherever I needed it...