City of Wilder, Kentucky

Located along the Licking River in Campbell County Kentucky, Wilder was once known as Leitch's Station, named after David Leitch from Scotland. Leitch, who owned 35,000 acres of land, started selling the land in 100 acre tracts around 1789 to anyone who wanted to move near the settlement he started along the Licking River.

The name Wilder dates back to a railroad station built in the mid-1800's for the Louisville, Cincinnati, and Lexington railway named Wilder station. "Wilder Station" is now located on property owned by Newport Steel.

Leithch himself died in at the age of 41, and his widow Keturah Moss, later married James Taylor, founder of Newport.

In 1847 St. Johns the Baptist Catholic church was built by German Immigrants atop of modern day Johns Hill Road next to the Corpus Christi Cemetery. The church was replaced with a new one in 1858 after a lightening strike sparked a fire that burned the first one down a year prior.

Wilder was home to the Queen City Race Track built in 1895. The track closed 10 years later and the stables were sold to pay off debts. The land became home to a steel plant built there, that operated under the names of Swift, Andrews, Interlake and now as Newport Steel.

Wilder was incorporated in March of 1935, and the new city board held its first meeting days later at Feldman's Diary. A city building was built in 1957 and the old Feldman Dairy Barn later became home to the Wilder Police Dept.

Wilder was nearly forced into a merger with Newport or Southgate in 1966 when a court ruled Wilder could not levy a payroll tax, a move that emptied the city budget. The merger proposals were rejected though as 17 city businesses helped bail Wilder out with early tax payments. A year later the city's finances permitted the building of the firehouse next to the city building.

In 1967 a public boat ramp was also built in Wilder by the Army Corps. of Engineers. The county run marina was closed in 1981 due to vandalism and maintenance problems. The city reopened it as "Frederick's Landing" in 1984 and operates it as a city park.

In recent, Wilder has seen large scale development of residential areas and has become the Northern entrance for the AA Highway completed in the late 90's. Only a short stretch of the old twisted 2-lane Licking Pike remains under the name John's Hill Road. Wilder is a sleeping residential community, with plenty of land in 2002 along the Licking River begging to be put to better use. We'll have to see yet where the next chapter writes itself for Wilder Kentucky.