WILDWOOD — This barrier island city known for its Doo-Wop architecture, the best beaches in New Jersey, a Bobby Rydell song about its “days,” and world-famous Boardwalk and amusement piers, isn’t the only place in the world with that distinctive name — meaning natural or uninhabited forest.
According to Wikipedia.com, there are at least a dozen towns and neighborhoods, several parks and historic structures, and even a prison sharing the Wildwood name, all spread across the country and the around the world from Alaska to New York to Melbourne, Australia.
Municipalities called Wildwood include a city in Sumter County, Florida; a hamlet in Alberta, Canada; an unincorporated community in Dade County, Georgia; a city in Jefferson County, Kentucky; and a third-ring suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. Populations range in these different Wildwoods from less than 300 to more than 34,000.
Other places carrying the Wildwood name include a neighborhood in eastern Roanoke, Virginia; a gated community in Nevada County, California; a neighborhood in southwest Calgary, Alberta, Canada; a neighborhood in southeast Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; a rural suburb or Melbourne, Australia; and a wooded community in the Forest Glen area of Chicago.
Obviously, there’s a few parks with the name, including: Wildwood Park for the Arts in Little Rock, Arkansas; a Wildwood Discovery Park in Kent, England; and a Wildwood State Park on Long Island, New York.
Wikipedia mentioned numerous Wildwood structures listed on their respective states’ registers of historic places, including: the Wildwood Farm in Skylight, Kentucky; Wildwood House in Ferguson, Missouri; Wildwood Hall, Newbury, Vermont; Wildwood Plantation House, Jackson, Louisiana; and Wildwood Cottage, Harrisville, New Hampshire.
Finally, there’s the Wildwood Correctional Complex, a prison facility that was originally a military base located on the Kenai Peninsula in southern Alaska, which is likely not listed as a historic or cultural landmark.
What does this plethora of Wildwood places mean for those who visit their beloved Wildwood, New Jersey every season? Maybe, they’ll just have to be more specific when they complete their “Where I went for summer vacation” essays.
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