Joaquin Miller, the ManJoaquin Miller Park is named for one of the late 19th century's more colorful figures, Cincinnatus Hiner ("Joaquin") Miller. Born in Indiana in 1841, he was 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, Ina Coolbirth, Oakland's first librarian, who convinced him to take the colorful pen name of "Joaquin" (pronounced wah-keen) Miller. He became known as the "Poet of the Sierras." When he returned to oakland in 1886, he settled on 70 acres of grassy hillside, which he 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 pine, Monterey cypress, olive and eucalyptus. He died in his home in 1913. |
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