This three-acre natural island on the Truckee River in the heart of downtown. Reno has an interesting history. In 1911, Reno attorney Lewis Hinckley began to develop it for an amusement park. He dubbed the location as Belle Island. In time, the island boasted a dance hall, a 700-seat open air theater among other things. The enterprise went bankrupt in 1916. In 1920, influential miner and Nevada banker George Wingfield purchased the property and donated it to the City of Reno. In turn the City of Reno’s named the property  George Wingfield Park.

Contrary to local folklore, when Wingfield sold his Honey Lake Valley summer home in 1924, he transported four buffalo that he had there to Wingfield Park. Wingfield did relocate the buffalo, but not to the park.

Tim