General Park Information: Damonte Ranch Park is a 8-acre Reno park with a year-round restroom. 

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Amenities Include: Playground, basketball court, walking paths, picnic shelter, barbeque area, and tables/benches.

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Construction of the 8-acre park began in 2007 and was completed in 2008, which included a gazebo, basketball court, picnic shelter and more amenities, plus a piece of public artwork featuring birds. DiLoretto Homes built the park and the City of Reno maintains it. The park ties into a trail system that runs through Damonte Ranch near the Steamboat Ditch and wetland areas. 

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View the slideshow to see some of Damonte Ranch Park's amenities!  

Photo of John C. Fremont.

History of Migrants in the Damonte Area

By the mid-1840’s, migrants began to arrive. The first non-natives to travel through the Truckee Meadows were the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy wagon party in 1844. A local Paiute, Chief Truckee, is credited with guiding these emigrants into the Sierra Nevada mountains to Truckee and Donner Lake; hence the origin of the name Truckee throughout the region. Next came John C. Fremont in 1845 and the Donner party in the fall/winter of 1846/1847. Many more migrants traveled through the area after gold was discovered in California. 
 
While Mormons were the first few European settlers of the Truckee Meadows area in the mid-1850s, the first non-Mormon European settlers were brothers Peleg and Joshua Brown in January 1857. The brothers settled in what is now the Damonte Ranch area while it was still part of the Utah Territory. There were only a few other immigrants in the area at that point in time. The Brown ranches included cattle, oxen, bulls, horses, and gardens with many vegetables and fruits.

 

Main Sign 

Photo by: Jay Kolbet-Clausell

Submit Your Park Stories and Photos! 

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Do you have personal photographs or stories about this park and are willing to share your memories with your community? Stories and photos can be recent adventures in the park, old memories of what the park used to be like, or fond remembrances of what this park has meant to you in the past. Sharing your photographs and memories will help to build our shared history of these important public places.

 

Click here to upload your photos and/or stories!

Pencil and notepad
 

biodiversity

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Typical flora and fauna: 
The following are a few of our favorite highlights. 
See the community submission section below to view additional wildlife sightings found at this park, and submit you own favorite naturalist sightings on iNaturalist here!

Flora:

Highlights:

What plants have you seen here?

Trees?

Flowers?

Shrubs?

Lichen or Mosses? 

Grasses?

Fauna:

Highlights:

What animals have you seen here?

Birds?

Amphibians?

Arthropods?

Mammals?

Reptiles?

Submission Box for Biodiversity Sightings:

 

Click here to document your own biodiversity observations from this park on iNaturalist.

Any observations noted along the Truckee River, please share with the Truckee River Guide project here.  

 

community submissions 

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Biodiversity Submissions:

Community Stories and Photos:

Your Name

Damonte Ranch

Tell us your stories about this park or share your photographs to add to the growing record of our shared park history! 

Your Name

Damonte Ranch

Tell us your stories about this park or share your photographs to add to the growing record of our shared park history! 

Your Name

Damonte Ranch

Tell us your stories about this park or share your photographs to add to the growing record of our shared park history! 

Please reload

Submit Here!
 

volunteer highlights

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Damonte Ranch Park History Researcher

Jill Richardson

Jill is the History Researcher for this park. She has dedicated time to research and document the history of the Damonte Ranch Park and region. Thank you Jill for your commitment to our parks and historic preservation!

 

References/more info

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General Park Resources:

History  Resources:

  • Reno Historical: "Peleg Brown Ranch."

  • A Steamboat in the Desert. (2010). Retrieved from Healthy Beginnings Magazine: https://www.hbmag.com/a-steamboat-in-the-desert/

  • Brown, H. (1968). A County Called Washoe.

  • Davis, S. P. (1913). History of Nevada, Volume 2.

  • Hummel, N. (1888). General History and Resources of Washoe County, Nevada.

  • Moreno, R. (2015). A Short History of Reno, 2nd Edition.

  • New Southeast Reno. (2008). Reno Gazette Journal .

  • Protect Mustangs. (2012). Retrieved from Historic Virginia City wild horses going to auction: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=2765

  • Roccapriore, C. (2007, September 17). Construction under way at site of Damonte neighborhood park. Reno Gazette Journal.

  • Spillman, B. (2018, January 30). Nevada could give away nearly 3,000 free-range horses in May. Reno Gazette Journal .

  • Steamboat Springs - Historical Marker #198. (2018). Nevada Historical Markers .

  • Steamboat Springs. (2018). Retrieved from Nevada State Preservation Office: http://shpo.nv.gov/nevadas-historical-markers/historical-markers/steamboat-springs

  • Voyage of the Continents: North America (2013). [Motion Picture].

  • Walton-Buchanan, H. (2015, Winter). The Peleg Brown / Louis Damonte Ranch. FootPrints by Historic Reno Preservation Society.

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