630 Manzanita Ln, Reno, NV 89509

Manzanita Park

Park Description:

Manzanita Park is a 12-acre Reno park with restrooms (opened seasonally: late April-Early October weather permitting).

Park Amenities:

Playground, baseball/softball field, tennis courts, basketball court, volleyball court, horseshoe area, exercise area, pathways, picnic shelter, rentable shelter, barbeque area, and tables/benches.

Park Contact Information:

City of Reno - Parks & Facilities (775) 334-2417

Park Highlights

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Park History

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Park Overview

Construction on Manzanita Park was approved by the Reno City Council in 1978 and work began two years later. The impetus for adding this park to the city’s portfolio was that many families were moving into the new housing subdivisions which were being built around that time. The city was aware that the existing parks were so popular that they were often at capacity. By 1981, families were enjoying the 4-acre park’s many amenities—the picnic pavilion, baseball/softball field, restrooms, and the playground area.

Almost a decade later, funds were earmarked for improvements and work began to expand the park’s area. Added were irrigated landscaping, pathways, prefabricated bridges, parking, and eventually picnic tables, fencing, volleyball and tennis courts. According to the Parks and Recreation Community Service Department, the park was expanded to thirteen acres at that time and was used by baseball/softball leagues and family gatherings. Along with Horseman’s Park, Manzanita Park was one of southwest Reno’s most popular parks in the late 1990s.

Image:
Bridge and pathway.
Image by Jay Kolbet-Clausell.

D. C. Wheeler

The land on which the Manzanita Park resides was once owned by “Uncle Dan.” Daniel C. Wheeler was born in 1840 in Ohio and came west across the plains to Salt Lake City at the age of 18. Against the advice of many, he and a few colleagues crossed the Great Basin and arrived in this area in 1858 when, according to Wheeler, there was only one other white man living here—Gus Martin. Wheeler used a team to transport Martin’s vegetables and hay to the Sierra County mines. He caught the mining bug and spent several years mining.

Eventually, Wheeler finally settled down in the Truckee Meadows and began his successful sheep-raising business. By the time he died in 1915, D. C. Wheeler, Inc. was one of the largest and wealthiest land owners in the West, owning about 50,000 sheep throughout the state which were used for mutton. His estate was valued at $300,000—that’s equal to $7.7 million in 2020! Wheeler was married to Sarah E. Ridenour; they had four sons and two daughters. Sarah was born in the east and crossed the plains to Oregon in 1854 at the age of four; during the trip the wagon train was held up and her parents were robbed of all their money. She died in 1931.