Reno Once Had Its Own Coney Island Amusement Park

 

  In the early 20th century, South Brooklyn wasn’t the only place with a Coney Island Amusement Park. Surprisingly, it was Reno that once boasted its own, admittedly smaller, version of the famous east coast carnival and amusement park.

  Located on the boundary between Reno and Sparks, this Biggest Little amusement park traces its roots to 1905, when a local brewery manager named Otto Benschuetz purchased the three-acre site, then known as Asylum Crossing because of its proximity to the Nevada Insane Asylum.

  While local newspapers speculated that he was planning to build a new brewing facility on the property, instead he opted to construct a park, which he named Wieland’s Park, after the brewing company that employed him (John Wieland Brewing Company of San Francisco).

  In July 1905, the new park opened for business. It boasted gardens with lush trees and shrubs, covered picnic areas, a bandstand, and strings of electric lights that gave the place an enchanting appearance.

  Four years later, Benschuetz decided to expand and rebrand the park. Now called Coney Island, after the famed New York area theme park, it offered a children’s playground, dance pavilion, a bar, and a new centerpiece, an artificial lake.

  The lake was the big attraction. In addition to being stocked with trout, it had a gasoline boat launch and offered boat rentals. Lake events included boat races and competitive swimming exhibitions.

  According to the Reno Historical website, Benschuetz died in 1912, which marked the beginning of the end of the park. By 1913, the park was sold and, according to Reno historian Patty Cafferata, the family-themed attractions began to fade away. Apparently the site became an open air park with a bar and dance hall (in the former pavilion).

  The arrival of prohibition meant the bar was closed in 1918.

   By 1924, part of the site had been transformed into the Coney Island Auto Park, which offered cottages with showers, kitchenettes, a gas station, a restaurant, camping spots, groceries, auto supplies and a barber shop to motorists traveling on the Lincoln Highway (now known as Interstate 80).

  In 1927, the former pavilion/dance hall burned down. It was rebuilt immediately only to be destroyed once again in another fire in 1930. A motel and restaurant, later built on the site of the hall, were torn down in the early 1970s during construction of Interstate 80.

  The neighborhood around the auto park became known as the Coney Island area and, by the mid-20s, was home to the Coney Island Tamale Factory, owned by Sparks businessman Ralph Galletti, as well as the Coney Island Dairy, owned by John Casale.

  Today, the tamale factory, still owned by the Galletti family, has transformed into the Coney Island Bar and Restaurant, a popular Sparks eatery at 2644 Prater Way.

  The Coney Island Dairy site is now home to Casale’s Half-Way Club (still owned by the Casale family), a restaurant at 2501 East Fourth Street, that has served Italian food to Reno-Sparks residents for more than 70 years.

  For more information about northern Nevada’s Coney Island, go to the Reno Historical website, https://renohistorical.org/items/show/88.