Bowers Mansion Park is a 49-acre space located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains in Washoe Valley. The grand Bowers Mansion (built 1863), added to the US National Register of Historic Places in 2013, is located at the southern end of the park.
Built by Lemuel Sanford 'Sandy' Bowers and his wife, Eilley Oram, in 1863, Bowers Mansion was the symbol of the great wealth the couple had amassed from their silver mine near Virginia City in the early 1860s. A rags to riches story, both Sandy and Eilley came from humble beginnings to eventually attaining great weath as some of the Comstock Lode's first millionaires. Their fortune was shortlived, however, and a combination of expensive taste and a series of bad invetments meant that after Sandy's death in 1868, Eilley struggled to maintain the propert. In 1876, the mansion was finally sold at public auction. Thereafter, Eilley became a wandering scryer, or fortuneteller, known as the Seeress of Washoe. SHe died in penury in an Oakland boardinghouse in 1903.
The mansion changed hands frequently until 1903, when a Reno brewer named Henry Riter purchased the mansion and, capitalizing on the natural beauty of Washoe Valley and the warm springs located on the property, ran it as a restort until retiring in 1946.
Upon his retirement, a group of twelve lcoal women known collectively as the Washoe County Women's Club, spearheaded a fundraising campaign to purchase the mansion for the benfit of the public. Thei efforts were successful with the help of the county comissioners, and Bowers Mansion Park has been open to the public as a place to picnic and play for over fifity years.
