Now known for horse farms, forward-thinking urban planning and high-end housing, Wildwood is the city that invented itself in the early 1990s to become one of Missouri's newest and largest cities. Activities that predate the incorporation now have been captured in a book.
Prospective and current Wildwood residents, as well as all who are interested in St. Louis history, are sure to enjoy this new volume authored by local resident Jo Beck. It provides an overview of the area's fascinating history.
Along with the Virginia settlers and solid German farmers who tamed the forested wilderness, the history also was shaped by Route 66 roadways, company towns, the clubhouse era, a group of committed tree huggers and the "westward movement" of the city of St. Louis. It is illustrated with dozens of vintage maps, photos and stories from long-time area residents.
Beck said she decided to write the book because she had great material and lots of photos she had collected from many interviews with local residents, both in Eureka and Wildwood. She was the writer and editor for Eureka's 2008 sesquicentennial history, and she said much of the material she collected for that book project was pertinent to the Wildwood area.
"Reedy Press wanted a book on Wildwood for their 'St. Louis City Series,' and so this book follows the guidelines for that series," said Beck.
She said she has been writing about local history since the 1980s when she was a contributor to the history of Warren County, Iowa, her hometown.
"I've lived in seven different states over the last 30 years, and I have always gotten involved with local history groups wherever I was," Beck said.
"In Montgomery County, Maryland, I wrote a series of articles on historic train stations, and another series of articles on slave settlements for the local newspaper. And of course, I have been preserving the history of my own family."
When Beck moved to St. Louis County in 1995, Wildwood had just been incorporated. "The city council called a meeting of anyone interested in preserving the history of the communities that now make up the city of Wildwood. I was involved with that effort for several years, and since I have a background in newspaper writing, I enjoyed interviewing older residents to hear their stories, write them down, and copy their photos," she said.
Beck said she found local people's stories very compelling. "Each interview led me to more people and more interviews. I dated and stapled together each pack of interview notes, and just kept chucking them into an old briefcase," she said.
She said she was especially interested in hearing about the Prisoners of War camps in the Wildwood area during World War II and the Civil Conservation Corps camp in the Babler State Park. "I interviewed many of those men, and I am so glad that I did, because they are gone now and their stories are preserved," she said.
Beck said what she continued to find so amazing in talking to older residents is the richness of their experiences. "In so many ways, their lives have been fuller and incomparable to ours. Baptisms in the river, snakes falling out of trees, witnessing a suicide, drinking moonshine, trapping your own food, playing baseball on railroad tracks, wringing the neck of a chicken and then cleaning and cooking it for lunch all in the space of an hour, being blamed for the death of a baby sister, surviving the Holocaust, living next to a bakery during the Depression and having to smell and want the bread but having no money to buy it," Beck said. "These are just a few examples of the wonderfully human stories that I have been privileged to hear."
She said she sometimes wonders why novelists make things up when there are so many real stories from which to choose.
Published by Reedy Press of St. Louis, "Wildwood" is available on the
publisher's website or at Wildwood City Hall for $18.
