On Christmas day 1947 Duckburg once again saw events that turned the tides and made old $crooge McDuck return to public life.

A dramatic Christmas and McDuck's return to public life in Duckburg

This Christmas old McDuck lent his cottage in Bear Mountain to his nephew Donald Duck and his three nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck. McDuck's idea was to have fun with his nephews by dressing himself as a Bear and scare them. However some real bears showed up and McDuck was the one to be scared instead.

Since the nephews had been brave (that's what McDuck thought) he invited them to dinner in his big house. To stop the mouth on Donald who wouldn't believe in all the stories of his fantastic life and his enormous fortune, McDuck invited his nephews to see his Money Bin.


Illustration 6.1 - McDuck knock the door open.

On their way to the Money Bin the Ducks was observed by the Beagle Boys, for the time being dressed as Santa Claus. While looking at the fortune, McDuck and his nephews was surprised by the Beagle Boys who locked them into an other room with a lot of McDuck's old trophies and other memorable items. To show Donald that he really had used the items in the old days, McDuck grabbed a hitch and knocked the door open.


Illustration 6.2 - McDuck and his nephews ready to follow the Beagle Boys.


Illustration 6.3 - McDuck and his nephews following the Beagle Boys.

Afterwards McDuck and his nephews, followed the Beagle Boys through the streets of Duckburg. For the first time in five years McDuck was thus again seen in public. It seems that McDuck was revitalised by this fight with the Beagle Boys, because shortly after he reopened his empire and caused a new growth for Duckburg. During the following 20 years he experienced adventures that brought new treasures, fame and glory to Duckburg from all parts of the world.

A fight with steam shovels in the streets of Duckburg


Illustration 6.4 - Steam showel fight in the streets of Duckburg.

At Christmas 1949 Donald Duck and his uncle $crooge McDuck managed to make a lot of trouble just because Donald had forgotten to send HD&L's letter to Santa Claus. When the boys said they wished for a steam shovel for Christmas, Donald and $crooge misunderstood and bought real steam shovels for them. When the two met driving a steam shovel each, in a crossroad in the centre of Duckburg, they started to fight. During this fight they destroyed both steam shovels and also caused some damage to the neighbouring houses. In the end Santa Claus arrived and gave HD&L a toy steam shovel, just what they had wished for.

A Christmas for Shacktown


Illustration 6.5 - A happy Christmas for the poor children of Shacktown.

The Christmas of 1951 was unforgettable for the poor children in Duckburg's poorest part, Shacktown. It began when Daisy Ducks ladies-club, co-operated with the Junior Woodchucks in order to arrange a memorable Christmas for the poor children in Shacktown. $crooge McDuck was asked to help, but before he was willing to donate any cent the ladies and the JW had to earn their half of the money first. Unfortunately McDuck's fortune fell into a deep pit beneath the Money Bin before he could pay them a single cent. The situation became even worse as experts said that it would be impossible to get the money back.

Fortunately the JW had a toy train that could reach the money from a cave underneath the city. To show his great appreciation to the JW for their help McDuck promised to donate the first load of money to them. Unfortunately for him and fortunately for the JW and the poor children of Shacktown there was a hundred thousand-dollar bills in that load. Afterwards the children of Shacktown experienced the best Christmas of their lifetimes.

The Statue Fight


Illustration 6.6 - Statue fight in Duckburg.

In 1952 the Maharaja of Howduyustan who by then claimed to be the richest man in world, visited Duckburg. During the visit he gave some money to raise a statue of Cornelius Coot. $crooge McDuck who couldn't accept this answered by raising a bigger statue. This started a "statue war" between the two. During this "statue war" several very big statues of Cornelius Coot were raised in Duckburg. In the end the combatants raised very expensive statues of them selves. Finally the maharaja went broke and left McDuck the winner of this fight.

The false anniversary arrangement
  
Illustration 6.7 - The alliance of The Beagle Boys, Magica De Spell and Flintheart Glomgold.
Illustration 6.8 - $crooge and Blackheart Beagle on top of a big statue of Cornelius Coot.

In "A little something Special" Don Rosa shows that $crooge's counterparts sometimes co-operate in order to achieve their goals. In this particular story Blackheart Beagle plans a false anniversary arrangement, in connection to $crooge's 50th anniversary as a citizen of Duckburg. (Since Don Rosa already has told us that $crooge arrived in Duckburg in 1902 (Lo$ part X), this story must have taken place in 1952. Blackheart's idea is that all the allies will profit from the co-operation. The Beagle Boys will finally get $crooge's money, Magica will have his first dime (which mean nothing to the others) and Flintheart will finally pass $crooge as the richest man in the world. However by a helping hand from his relatives $crooge manages to save his fortune once again. In the end $crooge and Blackheart ends up on top of a big statue of Cornelius Coot. This tell us that this story happened after the "statue-war" that also happened in 1952 (due to the inscription on the statue mentioned in chapter II).

Earthquakes


Illustration 6.9 - Earthquake in Duckburg.

In 1956 Duckburg suffered from the worst earthquakes in its known history. It all started when $crooge McDuck was digging a very deep tunnel in the ground in search for a place far below in the ground, where he could store his money safe from earthquakes. Deep in the ground he instead found a land beneath the ground called Terry Fermy, inhabited by feetless species called Terries and Fermies who's sport is to roll and jolt (the Terries) and to heave and toss (the Fermies) against the rocks to create earthquakes. To put an end to that sport in order to protect Duckburg and the Money Bin, McDuck and his nephews stole their trophy (an old vase). In order to try to get their trophy back, the Terries and Fermies created terrible earthquakes in Duckburg. One of this earthquakes caused McDuck's money to fell down the tunnel. Fortunately for McDuck, the Terries and Fermies didn't like the money and threw them up again before sealing the tunnel with a big rock. Since the Terries and Fermies didn't succeed in their efforts to get back their old trophy they had to choose an other one and ended up with McDuck's hat that was lost during the escape from the land beneath the ground. Duckburg has not suffered from major earthquakes ever since.

A windy experience for Duckburg

Another time in 1956 Scrooge decided to test Donald Duck and Gladstone Gander for their ability to take over the McDuck empire by giving them both a company each. The invitation was sent by mail and since Donald was the first one to appear in Scrooges office Scrooge let him choose between a moving company and a feather company. Donald choose the feather company that appeared to be the easiest company to run of the two. However a tornado helped Gladstone to move a house from one mountain top to another before it destroyed the roof on Donald's factory and spread the feather all over Duckburg. Thus the competition ended without a winner, but Donald got a nice amount of money from a happy Scrooge that thanks to the feather that had blown all over the city, experienced a nice profit from a strongly increased sale of hoovers.

A smoky experience for Duckburg

Illustration 6.10 - Smoke over Duckburg!.

At a third time in 1956 Donald Duck tried a career as a smoke writer (designing text and images on the sky with smoke from a plane). However people in Duckburg felt that they were suffering from a smoke-plague from industry and other sources, and thus didn't like Donald's new business at all. The only one who were willing to hire him was his uncle, Scrooge McDuck. Donald's mission was to write Scrooges name and design his profile on the sky in connection to an election campaign. However due to some unfortunate circumstances every profile of Scrooge became unsuccessful. Finally Scrooge fired four rockets against the sky and hit Donald's smoke equipment so that the entire Duckburg was covered with smoke for a while. To escape from the angry Duckburgians Scrooge left for Alaska while Donald went to the Isle of Capri.

The day Duckburg's water became red


Illustration 6.11 - Red water in Duckburg!.

In 1957 Gyro Gearloose's invented a powerful red-coloured dye to dye clothes. This invention was done for the clothmaker Donald Dock in 1113 Quack Street, Duckburg. But unfortunately his little helper spoiled a few drops of a spot remover that was used by Gyro to take chrome off old bumpers, on the address note. The few drops of spot remover changed the address to: Donald Duck, 13 Quack Street, Duckburg. The package with the dye was thus wrongly sent to Donald Duck who by then had a new job in the City Water department as a Roustabout at the waterworks in Duckburg. As a part of his job Donald waited for a package containing some powder to pour into the local Duckburg-River, to cleanse the water and improve the water-quality. When the package with the red super-dye was delivered he believed that it was the package he was waiting for and thus in good belief, poured it into the river. As a result the water in Duckburg turned red. Unfortunately this happened the same time that the mayor of Duckburg opened a new fountain in Duckburg, to honour the memory of Cornelius Coot, who piped mountain water to Dukburg,. Gyro Gearloose was soon ordered to clean up the mess, but the only solution he came up with was to create a water coloured dye that Donald poured into the Duckburg River. Afterwards Gyro, Doanld and HD&L left for Tibuktu for a while. We never learned how the water finally became OK again, but it was probably cleansed by itself during natural processes.

The Christmas tree bet.


Illustration 6.12 - Scrooges Christmas tree tops the clocktower!.

In 1958 Donald Duck and his Nephews was sent to Canada to find a 100 foot tall Christmas tree for their uncle, Scrooge. The reason for this is that Scrooge had a bet with the M.C., Jolly Ollie Eiderduck whether he could get the city a Christmas tree that wouldtop the clocktower on the Duckburg City Hall. Donald and his nephews succeeded in the first place, but then The Beagle Boys who were hired to cut a part of the tree, also succeeded with their mission and it seemed that Scrooge had lost the bet. However by the help of a ferris wheel Scrooge and his nephews still managed to lift the tree so that it finally topped the clock tower.

The Money Championship


Illustration 6.13 - Money Championship in Duckburg.

In 1959 Duckburg was the arena for the most special contest the world has ever experienced. $crooge McDuck was challenged by his South African counterpart Flintheart Glomgold to count their fortunes after changing them into silver dollars that was gathered into one big heap for each of the combatants, at an old airfield outside the city. After some dramatic events where Glomgold tried to sheet twice, McDuck's fortune was measured to be as much bigger as the amount of money Glomgold had paid in order to sheet.

Troubled Halloween


Illustration 6.14 - Chaotic Halloween in Duckburg.

In 1961 Duckburg suffered severe damages following a Halloween parade. It all begun when a committee made an attempt to change the way Halloween is celebrated in Duckburg. Unfortunately Donald Duck screwed it all up when he was searching for his nephews an all the other kids of Duckburg. By appear like a real flying witch testing a Jet-broom recently invented by Gyro Gearloose, he scared the police horses. In order to catch the horses he dived towards the zoo to get a rope, just ending up scaring all the animals in the zoo as well. In the chaos to follow Donald managed to escape before anyone could recognise him.

Hurricane at Cape Quack

Illustration 6.15 - Hurricane at Cape Quack.

Illustration 6.16 - Donald and the lights.

Illustration 6.17 - Record wave at Cape Quack.

Just before the Christmas of 1962 the worst hurricane in Duckburg's known history would have sunken the ship "Dauntless" that was bringing Duckburg's main Christmas tree from The Polar Gulf, if Donald Duck and his three nephews hadn't been at the old lighthouse at Cape Quack and lighted the old candles. After their brave efforts to save that ship Donald and HD&L became heroes in Duckburg.

The blown dike of Duckburg

Dramatic incidents occurred during the Duckburg sea festival in 1964. Just before highlight of the very Dutch inspired festival, the "wooden shoe ball", Donald and Gladstone Gander both searched for Daisy in hope of being her dancing partner during the ball. While crossing the dike that protects Duckburg from the sea Donald discovered a little leak near the bottom of the dike. While Gladstone went for help Donald put a finger into the hole to plug it. Gladstone that still wanted to dance with Daisy however started to look for her instead and soon forgot about Donald. Donald soon learned that nobody seemed to care about him - even the mayor forgot to warn the dike watch about the threat towards the dike. Eventually Donald couldn't stand it anymore and looked for a substitute for his finger. Underneath a huge plastic sea monster, made for the festival, his eye for details discovered a suitable pin. While he grabbed it Donald saw that there was some kind of line connected to the pin that he had discovered. There was however no time for him to think more about that before putting the pin into the hole in the dike. Afterwards Donald ran to tell everybody about the leak. Unfortunately the pin Donald used to plug the hole was dynamite intended for blowing up the sea monster and when he finally reached the festival the mayor already had kindled the fuse. As a result there was blown a big hole in the dike and Duckburg became flooded by sea water.

The machine that sent many duckburgians to the "Swamp of no return"


Illustration 6.19 - Duckburgians behaving odd after being hit by beams from the teaching machine.

In 1965 a local scientist in Duckburg, managed to create a machine that would give a person a skill just by hitting him/her by a beam. However when he gave a demonstration for Scrooge McDuck the machine still had a few problems like that any person hit by the beam would forget all about his/her old identity. Off course Scrooge saw the potentials of this machine and decided to finance then necessary improvements of the machine. However the local Brutopian consul had listened to their conversation, and when the scientist returned home to himself he was robbed by the consul. Afterwards the consul used the machine to make many Duckburgians go to an area called "Swamp of no return". Other Duckburgians were hit by other beams and started to behave very odd. In the end Scrooge were hit by a beam that made him a master shooter. He then took aim and fired against the taching machine in the consul's hand. After this incidents the scientist gave up his project because he believed that the world wasn't ready for it yet.

Trouble with giant robots


Illustration 6.20 - Robot Attack against McDuck's Money Bin.

Also in 1965 the Lackheed factory in Duckburg manufactured four man-driven giant robots, after instructions by the mayor of Duckburg and his staff. Even though the intentions was the best the result became poor. The Beagle Boys managed to steal all the robots and used them to steal all of $crooge's money. Later on $crooge and his nephews managed to take over one robot by playing on 176-167s loving for prunes. At the end even the mayor had enough and the robots were destroyed and $crooge was asked to pay for all damages because he was the only one with enough money to pay for it.

Other incidents with no known date




Illustration 6.21 - Thunderstorm against the Money Bin.
Illustration 6.22 - Meteorite fall against the Money Bin.

In the early and mid-sixties an Italian witch called Magica De Spell some times caused bad weather and other calamities in the area surrounding McDuck's Money Bin (the above incidents from 1963), in seek of his first dime. However she seldom harmed other Duckburgians.


Illustration 6.23 - The Billionaires Club in Duckburg.

Sometime after 1902 and before 1960 a local Billionaire's Club was founded in Duckburg. $crooge McDuck is one of it's members. This club is among other stories, known from The Status Seeker by Carl Barks.

Illustration 6.24 - The totem pole.

Illustration 6.25 - People leaving Duckburg to avoid the Black Wednesday.

In a story (WDC 230) Carl Barks tell us about a phenomenon called Black Wednesday. This phenomenon that occurred on the same Wednesday (third Wednesday after red Monday) each year, made people and animals loosing their hair. In this story Barks says that the first Black Wednesday happened in 1909. People in Duckburg believed that it was a curse that was connected to a totem-pole that $crooge brought with him after visiting the Chillyboot Indians in the wild north of Canada. The reason for the curse was that $crooge during this trip sold the Indians some hair water that made them loose their hair. The phenomenon lasted until 1959 when it was discovered that it was caused by $crooge airing his money on that day each year because that was the only day in the year that he felt safe to do that. The phenomenon thus disappeared when $crooge installed a new air-condition in the Money Bin. Don Rosa however says that Barks also have shown that $crooge never was back home in Duckburg in 1909, so there has to be a few inaccuracies when it comes to the chronology in this story.

Born ca. 1920 as one of two twins. Son of $crooge McDuck's sister Hortense McDuck and Quackmore Duck, son of Elivira "Grandma" Duck and her husband Humperdink Duck. Donald Duck thus is a descendant from both the Clan McDuck and the Coots.

Donald Duck has trough the years tried all kinds of jobs without much success. This is though more caused by constant bad luck and stubbornness than a lack of talent. It however seems that his Uncle $crooge always has something for him, like shining his coins.

Once Donald built his own car (registered with the number 313) from spare parts. He has used it ever since.

Donald has a rumour for being a "difficult" neighbour. His fights with his neighbour J. Jones are matter of discussions all over Duckburg. Donald is also known for fights with his own cousin Gladstone Gander over Donald's girlfriend Daisy Duck.

In the private Donald raises his three nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck, with great success.

While there are straight lines in the history of Duckburg until the 1940s, the situation is an other for the period covered by this chapter. This is because this period is "present Duckburg" that is covered by most stories from Barks, Rosa and any other Duck-stories creator. In most of this Duck-tales nobody actually remembers anything from one story to the next. Things that happens in one story does not necessarily have consequences for later stories. Donald is often portrayed as a good for nothing, despite the fact that he has just as often been portrayed as being exceptionally good at unusual tasks (such as snake charming or rain making). Donald never has a penny even though he occasionally gets large sums of money (such as in the Barks classic "The Gilded Man" where he goes to British Guyana to seek a purple stamp). The reason for these "paradoxes" is what Don Rosa call the "limited continuity" (Weisinger continuity) of the Duck Universe. He explain that term this way:

"With every story that I do, every story that is taking place in the present, the story takes place... then "time" winds back and that story is forgotten, as if it never occurred. I've had Donald discover at least one fabulous treasure, then be flat broke again in the next story. I have destroyed the Money Bin totally, then referred to it afterwards as if it has stood untouched and intact for 50 years. I have done stories where Donald is the "world master" at some skill, then a helpless boob again in the next tale. What I regard as "fixed" inviolate "history" is everything that has come before the "present". Everything that Barks ever said that $crooge did in Montana in 1882 or in Scotland in 1901. Naturally! Would I call those classic stories "lies"? Or "mistakes"? I grew up on that stuff."

According to this I have only referred to the most famous and most dramatic events in Duckburg during this period. The dating on these events is based on when those stories was created and first published. I have found those chronological data in a Barks Index (1995) by Erik Hørthe and Geir J. Netland.