Reno Once Boasted an 'Isle of Sin' in the Truckee River

1918 Map showing Reno's Infamous Scott Island (now gone)

   During the early to mid-20th century, Reno residents who tumbled to the bottom of the city’s economic ladder would often find themselves residing—sometimes outside—on a patch of land surrounded by the waters of the Truckee River.

   Known as Scott Island (and also called Monkey Island), it was a haven for hobos, transients, those with substance abuse problems, and others who had no place else to go. A 1958 Reno Evening Gazette article delicately described residents as “Reno’s less-than wealthy outdoor residents.”

   Scott Island was actually not a true island. It was a 16-acre, somewhat football-shaped piece of land on the south side of the Truckee River that, starting in the earl 1890s, had been cut off from the rest of Reno by an irrigation ditch.

   In addition to serving as an outdoor flophouse, over the years the island also was host to the Reno Boat Club’s clubhouse, alfalfa fields, a radio station tower, cabins, and a fairly nice house. In later years, it was the site of a garbage/salvage yard and a concrete plant.

   Reno newspaper accounts just after the turn of the 20th century contain several accounts of various criminal enterprises on the island.

   For example, in 1905, under the headline, “Police Rain Opium Joint,” the Gazette noted that “three opium outfits were captured by the police last night in a raid on a cabin” on the island. The story also said that a well-dress stranger “addicted to the Habit” was caught “red-handed” in the cabin. Not surprisingly, he declined to provide his name to the paper.

   A few years later, in 1910, the Gazette reported that the island was the location of a “free for all fight,” which was broken up by police. In 1924, the body of a janitor who lived in a cabin on the island was discovered. The paper said he had been shot twice and then beaten to death.

   By the 1920s, Scott Island had become a frequent target of Prohibition agents, who periodically raided the cabins to confiscate “moonshine” and other illegal alcoholic beverages.

   Throughout the years, the island was regularly flooded, which washed away most of the crude encampments. However, it was never too long before new ones cropped up.

   One of the saddest stories appeared in the Winnemucca Silver State newspaper on December 16, 1905. Beneath the headline, “Wife and Four Children Deserted and Destitute,” the paper noted that a Reno painter named Charles Carey had deserted his pregnant wife and four children, who lived in a cabin on the island, while he was out on strike from his employer.

   “To provide fuel for the little home, the woman, who is in a delicate condition, has been gathering up [gambling] chips from the street,” the paper reported. “Less than a dollar was the funds she had since her husband disappeared.”

   Fortunately for the woman and her children, her husband’s former employer decided to take care of the family, the story concluded.

   In June 1959, a fire broke out on the island, destroying most of the structures on what had become known as the “Reno Jungle.” By the early 1960s, the island was still the site of some bizarre newspaper accounts, including one, in 1963, about Reno police investigating a complaint that 20 cats had been shot and eaten.

   “Investigators said the man alleged to have shot the animals has denied the charge,” the Journal said. “However, according to police, a second man admitted eating them.”

   In the early 1970s, the irrigation ditch was filled in and future of Scott Island became the topic of much discussion among city and county leaders. When the families of those who owned the property offered to sell it to the city, some proposed making it into a city park (something that had been talked about since at least 1910).

   In the late 1970s, the site was sold to Reno Newspapers Inc., publishers of the Reno Evening Gazette and the Nevada State Journal, for a new printing plant and newspaper offices. After construction of a 92,588-square-foot facility in the early 1980s, the former island served as the newspaper company’s home until 2020, when the building was sold to the city of Reno.

   The city converted into the new headquarters of the Reno Police Department, which somehow seemed appropriate given the island’s notorious past.