14770 Granite Mine Ct, Reno, NV 89521

Bailey Creek Park

Park Description:

Bailey Creek Park is a 3-acre Washoe County park with a portable restroom. The park offers access to the Bailey Creek wash.

Park Amenities:

Playground, basketball court, picnic shelter, barbeque area, pathway, and tables/benches.

Park Highlights

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Park History

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Bailey Canyon and Creek

The area around the park is called Bailey Canyon, and is named after the Bailey family who lived at the foot of Geiger Grade. Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Bailey initially lived in Virginia City where Mr. Bailey was in the mining industry before the family moved down to the canyon in the early 1900s, then moved to Reno in 1917.

According to his obituary, H.H. “Doc” Bailey was born in Vermont in 1845. Doc arrived in Virginia City after having sailed from Vermont around Cape Horn, followed by a stint trapping in Idaho until he was “driven out by the Indians.” After arriving in Nevada in 1873, he married Annie Olds and worked for the Consolidated Virginia mine under John W. Mackay. Doc’s most prized possession was an old six-shooter previously belonging to Mackay. Interestingly, their daughter Lilly married John L. Wedekind in 1902—a regional park north of Sparks is named after Wedekind.

Image:
Bailey Canyon and Creek:
Virginia City in 1867 with the Geiger Grade wagon road. Source: Timothy O’Sullivan,

Western Nevada Historic Photo Collection.

The Geiger Grade Toll Road

While the park is relatively new, it is located in an area rich with Nevada history. Just a block away is the old Geiger Grade Toll Road. It is considered one of the oldest roads in the state. John Tilton and Davison Geiger were granted the franchise to build a toll road between Virginia City and Steamboat Springs in 1861 by the Nevada Territorial Legislature. Geiger was the surveyor and laid out the road up the canyon.

Geiger is described as an expert surveyor, but you’d hardly know it if you hiked on the upper portion of the road with its sharp turns, steep inclines, and precarious drop-offs. Despite its precarious nature, this toll road was popular with teams of animals pulling wagons of food and supplies up to Comstock in Virginia City. Stagecoaches filled with people, and sometimes valuable treasure boxes from Wells Fargo & Co., buzzed up and down the road. Stores and hotels provided some services along the route; now they’re all long gone. Even today, the upper portion is not paved and not easy to travel, but back in the old days, snow and mud on the 2000-foot climb made the road impassable for part of the year. Stretches of the road were very narrow and tended to frighten horses, causing dreadful accidents.

Because there were so many times the road was impassable due to heavy snow or mud, locals clambered for a more reliable road to Virginia City, which was the seat of Storey County. The

replacement road called State Hwy 341 was completed in September 1936 and was funded by the Federal Bureau of Public Roads. The highway overlooks the old Geiger Grade Toll Road but is wider, has less dangerous curves, and eliminates the steep portions (although it still climbs close to 2000 feet in seven miles).

The sides of the mountains had to be blasted away to create the new road by depression-era work relief parties consisting of 300 to 400 men. The two construction companies worked from opposite directions—the Utah Construction Company started at the top and worked downhill, whereas the Isbell Construction Company of Reno started in the valley and worked uphill.

Image:
The Geiger Grade Toll Road:
The International Hotel in Virginia City in 1866 with stagecoach loaded and ready to depart, via Geiger Grade, to Reno.

Source: Lawrence & Houseworth,

Western Nevada Historic Photo Collection.

The Bain Dude Ranch

Another important family in the canyon was that of the Bains (note Bain Springs Road off of the old Toll Road). H. Foster Bain and his wife purchased property in the upper canyon in 1941, and then moved to the lower canyon in 1956. H. Foster Bain was a prominent mining engineer and geologist. He was imprisoned by the Japanese for two years during WWII. His wife, Mary Wright Bain, was known as Reno’s “Flying Grandmother” because she started fling in 1930 at the age of 51.

Their son, Allan Bain Tanner, was a graduate of MIT and a geophysicist for the US Geological Survey. He grew up on the dude ranch and took care of their animals. Before he died in 2019, Allan Tanner worked with Washoe County and Bureau of Land Management to protect the canyon and the ranch. Together they preserved this 271-acre historic area, including part of the old Geiger Grade Toll Road, the Newton Creek drainage, a rare buckwheat plant, and mule deer habitat part of the Nevada Land Trust.

Image:
H. Foster Bain. Source: www.stategeologists.org

The Birth of Bailey Creek Park

The 3-acre Bailey Canyon Park, within the subdivision of Cottonwood Creek near the Virginia Foothills area, was completed in 2002 at a cost of $383,000.

The Washoe County Commission discussed the park in April of 2001 and bids to build the park went out that same month and completed a year later. A unique feature is the fencing for the purpose of keeping out the wild horses.

Image:
Allan Tanner. Source: Washington Post

Bailey Creek Through Time

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Bailey Creek Park on iNaturalist

Contact:

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Want To Learn More?

References & Further Info:

Washoe County Parks and Open Space - Bailey Creek Park
Carson City Appeal
Gold Hill Daily News
Nevada State Journal
Reno Evening Gazette
Reno Gazette-Journal
Full list of sources...

Contributor(s):

Jill Richardson (history)

Haley McGuire

Alex Shahbazi

Last Updated:

April 23, 2022, 5:49:31 PM

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