MUNICIPALS: "W" IS FOR WYCKOFF

This is the final badge in my "Municipal Display." It is number 41 in alphabetical order. The "W" is for the Town of Wyckoff. 

 Wykoff is in North Jersey. It is semi rural or a residential community  I was surprised to learn that it is in Bergen County, NJ  I thought Morris County, but what is my point of reference? I only lived in the area 50+ years and never once went to Wyckoff.

The place sounds like an Indian Reservation. It wasn't, but the Lenape Indians did roam this area. The community possibly took its name,  stealing a word from the Lenape Indians.

The thinking is that the Indians had a word describing highlands and also water. The two words are: "Wickoff" and "Wickok".

There is a similar named community over in New York. Looking at that town I learned that it was named after a family with the last name Wyckoff. This family did have some roots in New Jersey.

I am sure that the Wyckoff Family only scared  our  Indians. The Jersey settlers took their name from the Lenape's, while the New Yorker's were making a real estate transaction for Manhattan.  Checking history I see New York  appropriated  the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island  from Jersey, not the other way around.

This happened because New York used a surveyor that had no idea what a straight line was, and, of course, because the Wyckoff Police did not exist. The police department came into being somewhere after 1926 when they Town was created.

The badge was one of the early designs. It reads: Wyckoff,  Police, and at the bottom is a number box filled with the numeral "3".

The design of this badge is like so many in my collection. It is what I call a traditional badge. I like the shape and have tried to fill my "Municipal Collection" with only that design.

I have done a pretty good job on meeting that goal of collecting only this design. I have had this badge for close to 25 years. It certainly meets the design criteria. I am proud to have it and regard as a "keeper" for sure. 

I look at it daily and think of those famous Jersey Lenape Indians. I also keep it safe, under glass, here in Florida, the land of the Seminole Indians.