Wilde Lake, Columbia, Maryland
village in Columbia, Maryland, United States
Wilde Lake (IPA: ) is a village in the planned community of Columbia, Maryland, located north and west of Columbia Town Center. Established in 1967, the village includes the neighborhoods of Bryant Woods, Faulkner Ridge, and Running Brook, which were developed around the historic Oakland Manor. The village contains a 22-acre (8.9 ha) human-made reservoir, also called Wilde Lake, which was built in 1966 and collects stormwater runoff from a 1,140-acre (460 ha) catchment.
The village center contains retail and community facilities and has undergone redevelopment since 2013, including new residential and commercial construction. Wilde Lake High School, the first high school in Columbia, opened in 1971, and Wilde Lake Middle School became the first net zero emissions school in Maryland in 2017.
Wilde Lake
Wilde Lake collects storm water runoff from 1,140 acres (460 ha), with a maximum capacity of 48,200,000 US gallons (182,000 m3). Rouse executive Mort Hoppenfeld designed the 27 foot (8.2 m) tall, 200 foot (61 m) wide dam across the Patuxent River branch which flooded the fields between the historic stone buildings of Oakland Manor and the pre-colonial Old Oakland manor. The dam project was budgeted at $500,000 for construction, but came in at $900,000 by the time of construction. A rapid change in design by engineer George Levine reduced the cost to $250,000 In 1969, Spiro Agnew proclaimed the arrival of the first Columbia-based scientific firm, Hittman Associates, who relocated for favorable lease rates from Howard Research and Development. Hittman in turn was contracted by the EPA, recommending Wilde Lake reuse storm water runoff from the reservoir for Columbia resident's drinking water to save on development costs.
“Wilde Lake, Columbia, Maryland” enters the record as village in Columbia, Maryland, United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Wilde, Lake and Columbia can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Wilde Lake, Columbia, Maryland” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Wilde, Lake and Columbia provides the most credible route into that argument.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8001043. Authority coordinates are 39.226, -76.866. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1967, 1966, 2013 and 1971.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Wilde Lake, Columbia, Maryland” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.