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Parks & Environmental Services
Residents shape Shawnee’s new Wilder Bluff Park By BETH ANNE BRINK-COX | The Municipal
What do you know about Shawnee, Kan.? Not much? Well, wherever you’re from, you’ll want to visit the beautiful Wilder Bluff Park as soon as you can where there are numerous amenities to delight. The name Wilder Bluff, one of five proposed, was chosen by Shawnee residents who had attended community meetings about the proposed park. Wilder Bluff is most fitting because the park land sits on a bluff above the old town of Wilder, which was founded in 1875 on land owned by Peter D. Cook. Cook, who lived in Topeka, had purchased the land from a Shawnee Indian, speculating that the area would become a train stop. The town eventually became a stop on the Kansas City, Topeka and Western Railroad, of which Mr. Cook was one of the directors. Wilder was 2 miles from the Tiblow Ferry, which crossed the Kansas River to Bonner Springs. Over the years a post office, stores, a school/church, a blacksmith’s shop and a number of homes were built in Wilder. In 1878, several freed Black families moved to Wilder 48 THE MUNICIPAL | SEPTEMBER 2021
to farm the rich land. Their children attended the Kaw Valley School, integrating with the other children of the area. The town was a vibrant community until the flood of 1903, which covered the town. In 1911 a fire whipped by high winds destroyed much of the town again. In the 1930s, grain and many potatoes were shipped out of the Wilder railroad station. In 1951 a great flood again covered most of the homes and businesses to their rooftops. The town never fully recovered, and today it is only a small group of homes in Shawnee. Future historical markers might tell the early story of the area so visitors may learn how people lived many years ago before the park was developed. The park land was purchased in 2004. In November 2019, the project kicked off with a design charrette between the design team,
