Joaquin Miller Park is a large open space park in the

Oakland Hills Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay ...

owned and operated by the city of

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. It is named after early California writer and poet

Joaquin Miller Cincinnatus Heine Miller (; September 8, 1837 – February 17, 1913), better known by his pen name Joaquin Miller (), was an American poet, author, and frontiersman. He is nicknamed the "Poet of the Sierras" after the Sierra Nevada, about which h ...

, who bought the land in the 1880s, naming it "The Hights" 'sic'' and lived in the house preserved as the Joaquin Miller House.

Park

In addition to building his home here and planting hundreds of trees, Joaquin Miller placed monuments to his various heroes on the property, including

Moses Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu ( Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pr ...

John C. Frémont John Charles Frémont or Fremont (January 21, 1813July 13, 1890) was an American explorer, military officer, and politician. He was a U.S. Senator from California and was the first Republican nominee for president of the United States in 1856 ...

, and

Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical sett ...

and

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Elizabeth Barrett Browning (née Moulton-Barrett; 6 March 1806 – 29 June 1861) was an English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime. Born in County Durham, the eldest of 12 children, Elizabet ...

.Weintraub, David. ''Afoot and Afield: San Francisco Bay Area''. Berkeley, CA: Wilderness Press, 2004: 152. The monuments remain to this day. The park's are heavily wooded with

coast redwood ''Sequoia sempervirens'' ()''Sunset Western Garden Book,'' 1995:606–607 is the sole living species of the genus '' Sequoia'' in the cypress family Cupressaceae (formerly treated in Taxodiaceae). Common names include coast redwood, coastal ...

s, coast live oaks, and pines. Many of the trees were originally planted by Miller himself. The Oakland Hills location provides panoramic views of the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water f ...

area. The park features include miles of hiking, biking, and horseback riding trails, an off-leash dog area, a children's playground, an amphitheater, and picnic tables. The stairs below the "cascades" that flow from the Woodminister Amphitheater are actively used by fitness enthusiasts and weddings. The park is cared for by the Friends of Joaquin Miller Park coalition of users. Flora in the park include pinkflower currant, evergreen huckleberry,

creambush ''Holodiscus discolor'', commonly known as ocean spray or oceanspray, creambush, or ironwood, is a shrub of western North America. Description ''Holodiscus discolor'' is a fast-growing deciduous shrub usually from to in height, and up to ta ...

, and

gooseberry Gooseberry ( or (American and northern British) or (southern British)) is a common name for many species of '' Ribes'' (which also includes currants), as well as a large number of plants of similar appearance. The berries of those in the gen ...

. There are several picnic areas as well as walking trails in the park, including Sinawik Trail, Sunset Loop, Palos Colorados Trail, Chaparral Trail, and Cinderella Trail.

Amphitheater

Joaquin Miller Park contains the 2,000-seat Woodminster Amphitheater and Cascade, an outdoor

amphitheater An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...

regularly used to stage both amateur and professional musicals and plays. For many years the Oakland Recreation Department put on popular productions of musical comedies there, three per summer, using mostly amateur performers. Starting in 1967, production of the summer musicals was taken over by the current management. The Cascade is the amphitheater's waterfall feature built in 1941 and dedicated to California writers, still with flowing water. It was designed by Howard Gilkey, who also designed the Cleveland Cascade at Lake Merritt (now dry).

References

External links

City of Oakland, Joaquin Miller Park websiteWoodminster Musicals website
Parks in Oakland, California Parks in the San Francisco Bay Area Amphitheaters in California Outdoor theatres {{AlamedaCountyCA-geo-stub