Memories of Moana

Recently, I visited my insurance agent, whose office is located in a building that used to house a country radio station I worked for back in the 90’s. While I cannot recall the stations call letters, I do remember the several times one or two of the windows in our offices were shattered by a foul-ball from the stadium across the street.

The memory got me to thinks and eventually researching some history of the place.

Moana Springs sits along a subterranean thermal belt which passes through eastern California and western Nevada. Located on the Haines Ranch, south of Reno, the property was purchased by Charles T. Short, Al North and John N. Evans n the summer of 1905 with the idea of putting up a resort.

Short had spent some time in the Hawaiian Islands in 1904 and had stayed at a resort by the name of Moana Springs, and that’s how the place got its name. Work on the bath house and the clubhouse got under way in August 1905 and opened on October 29, with a hotel opening a year or so later.

The Nevada Interurban Railway, a trolley line owned by Louis W. Berrum, began service to Moana from the Reno city limits southward along Plumas Street in October of 1907. Berrum eventually became a stockholder in the springs and well as owned an adjoining ranch.

The springs and trolley both shut down in 1911 following a disagreement between the partners, with Berrum finally buying out every one in early 1913. The acquisition meant that Moana Springs would stay in the Berrum family for the next forty-years.

Moana had a dance hall, a movie theater, baseball diamond, ice skating and boating facilities and a picnic grounds. The site was also the home of school parties, circus performances, rodeos, trap-shoots, baseball games and other sporting events.

Jim Jefferies trained at Moana Springs in the early summer months 1910 during for his attempt to regain his heavyweight boxing crown. Three years later, Jess Willard fought at the resort, two years before he became heavyweight champion of the world.

Following World War II Louis Berrum Jr. began promoting baseball, opening a new stadium in 1947 which hosted the Reno Oilers, Reno Silver Sox, Reno Blackjacks, Reno Padres, Reno Chukars and Reno Astros. Less than a decade later, the City of Reno purchased the property and in December 1957, the original buildings were demolished.

My son, Kyle was six or seven when he and his step-brother’s little league baseball team were publicly introduced before the start of a Silver Sox game. They handed out commemorative mini-baseball bats to all the kids that day – yeah – children with weapons.

The Triple-A Tucson Sidewinders, a farm team for the Arizona Diamondbacks, relocated to Reno in 2009 to become the Reno Aces. The Aces and the city built a new state-of-the-art stadium in downtown Reno, rendering Moana Stadium useless.

In 2011, plans were drawn up to demolish the stadium and nearby Moana Pool in order to build several public soccer fields and a new city pool and aquatics center. Parts of the stadium were auctioned off in April, 2012. The demolition was completed in July 2012.

In October 2012, the City of Reno voted to return Moana Park’s name to it original name of Moana Springs.