Joaquin Miller Park

“The park is named for one of the more colorful figures of the 19th century. Cincinnatus Hiner (“Joaquin”) Miller was born in Indiana in 1841 and during his life he was a pony-express rider, lawyer, judge, teacher, gold prospector, nomad and author. During a trip to the Bay Area in 1870, he met California’s first Poet laureat and Oakland’s first librarian, Ina Coolbirth. Coolbirth convinced him to take the colorful pen name of Joaquin Miller. He became well known as the “Poet of the Sierras.” When he returned to Oakland in 1886, he settled on 70 acres of grassy hillside, which he had purchased parcel-by-parcel in the hills above the “City of the Oaks.” In an effort to create an inspirational artists’ retreat, he erected monuments, built structures for his mother and daughter, and coordinated the planting of 75,000 trees – monterey cypress, olive and eucalyptus. He died in his home in 1913. The poet had asked to be cremated by friends in the funeral pyre he built near his home with no religious ceremony and without being embalmed. His wishes were mostly ignored and the funeral on February 19 drew thousands of curious onlookers. The preacher who spoke referred to Miller as “the last of America’s great poets.”On May 23, members of the Bohemian Club of San Francisco and the Press Club returned to Miller’s funeral pyre to burn the urn which contained his ashes, allowing them to scatter.”

His cabin, funeral pyre, and sculptures can still be visited all over the park, along with the very art-deco Woodminster Amphitheater and cascades.