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 early 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.

In June 1959, a fire broke out on the island, destroying most of the structures on what had become known as the “Reno Jungle.”

In 1970s, the irrigation ditch was filled in and future of Scott Island (no longer an island) became the topic of much discussion among city and county leaders.

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.

In 2020 the newspaper building was sold to the city of Reno.

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

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