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Community Corner

What's in a (City) Name?

Eurekas and Wildwoods around the United States share interesting similarities despite different locations. Happy New Year to us and them!

The next time you visit , be sure to see the world’s largest tree, or the college Ronald Reagan attended. Or maybe you’d rather take a stroll on the boardwalk in .

These are some of the attractions you’ll find in the other towns named Eureka and Wildwood spread throughout the United States. They aren’t hard to find, either. There are at least 13 other states with a town named Eureka, and four with a Wildwood.

One of “our” Eureka’s most charming stories is how the town got its name.  president Bryan Kiefer said Eureka was an old farming community. "When the railroad came through, they saw the long, flat stretch and said ‘Eureka.’ (The word, meaning “I’ve found it,” is supposed to have been said by the ancient Greek scholar Archimedes.)

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The railroad workers were glad to see a break on this adventure to move on with less toil and labor,” Kiefer said.

Interestingly enough, similar stories are told about Eureka, KS (where settlers discovered a source of water,) Eureka, CA (where explorers carved a trail to the Humboldt Bay) and the mining towns in western states like Colorado and Nevada.

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While Eureka was a name favored by explorers and pioneers, the name Wildwood is more popular in the East. When the multiple communities came together in the 1990s to establish a single city in western St. Louis County, they looked for a name that could represent the entire area. “There were quite a number of names suggested,” said Jim Martin, president of the . Martin notes “Wildwood” was supposed to be a temporary choice, but ended up as the official name.

Surprisingly, the area’s most unique name may belong to its schools. The only other in the United States is in a rural area of southwest Pennsylvania. With fewer than 900 students, the district’s entire enrollment could attend classes at , with room to spare.

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