The first European to document the islands of San Francisco Bay was
Spanish naval officer and explorer
Juan Manuel de Ayala during the
Spanish rule of California; he charted San Francisco Bay in 1775. He named today's
Yerba Buena Island as
"La Isla de los Alcatraces", which translates as "The Island of the
Gannets", but is commonly believed to translate as "The Island of the
Pelicans" (the modern Spanish word for pelican is
pelícano), from the archaic Spanish '''' ("pelican"). No gannets are native to the Pacific Coast, making the older Spanish usage more likely. Yerba Buena Island was labeled on
Ayala's 1775 chart of San Francisco Bay as "Isla de Alcatraces". The name was later applied to the rock now known as Alcatraz Island by
Captain Frederick W. Beechey, an English naval officer and explorer. Over the years, the Spanish version "Alcatraz" became popular and is now widely used. In August 1827, for instance, French Captain Auguste Bernard Duhaut-Cilly wrote "... running past Alcatraze's (Pelicans) Island ... covered with a countless number of these birds. A gun fired over the feathered legions caused them to fly up in a great cloud and with a noise like a hurricane." The
California brown pelican (
Pelecanus occidentalis californicus) is not known to nest on the island today. The Spanish built several small buildings on the island and other minor structures. Julian Workman is the baptismal name of
William Workman, co-owner of
Rancho La Puente and a personal friend of Pio Pico. Later in 1846, acting in his capacity as military governor of California,
John C. Frémont bought the island for $5,000 in the name of the
United States government from Francis Temple. In 1850, President
Millard Fillmore ordered that Alcatraz Island be set aside specifically as a United States military reservation, Frémont had expected a large compensation for his initiative in purchasing and securing Alcatraz Island for the U.S. government, but the U.S. government later invalidated the sale and paid Frémont nothing. Frémont and his heirs sued for compensation during protracted but unsuccessful legal battles that extended into the 1890s. Studies of the island and its fortifications have included archeological surveys relying on contemporary technology. In 2019 "Binghamton University archaeologist Timothy de Smet and colleagues located historical remains beneath the former recreation yard of the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary." Using
ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data and georectifications, Smet and colleagues discovered structures, including "a 'bombproof' earthwork traverse along with its underlying vaulted brick masonry tunnel and ventilation ducts," in surprisingly good condition. Archaeologists also found the remains of ammunition magazines, and tunnels below the penitentiary that was built later. Because of the isolation created by the cold, strong currents of the waters of San Francisco Bay, as early as 1859, Alcatraz was used to house soldiers convicted of crimes. By 1861, the fort was the military prison for the
Department of the Pacific. It housed Civil War
prisoners of war (POWs) as early as that year. Starting in 1863, the military also held private citizens accused of treason, after the writ of
habeas corpus in the United States was suspended. Hundreds of troops were trained on the island, with more than 350 military personnel in place by April 1861. As enlistees were assigned to units, new green troops reported for training. In early 1865, the number of men reached 433, the peak of the war. During the Civil War-era, rapid changes in artillery and fortification were generated. Alcatraz's defenses were obsolete by the postwar years. Modernization efforts, including an ambitious plan to level the entire island and construct shell-proof underground magazines and tunnels, were undertaken between 1870 and 1876 but never completed (the so-called "parade ground" on the southern tip of the island represents the extent of the flattening effort). Instead, the army switched the focus of its plans for Alcatraz from coastal defense to detention, a task for which it was well suited because of its isolation. In 1867, a brick jailhouse was built (previously inmates had been kept in the basement of the guardhouse), and in 1868, Alcatraz was officially designated as a long-term detention facility for military prisoners. The facility was later discontinued for Prisoners of War in 1846. Among those incarcerated at Alcatraz were Confederates caught on the
West Coast In 1898, due to the
Spanish–American War, the prison population rose from 26 to over 450. From 1905 to 1907 it was commanded by U.S. Army Major
George W. McIver. After the
1906 San Francisco earthquake, civilian prisoners were transferred to Alcatraz for safe confinement. On March 21, 1907, Alcatraz was officially designated as the Western U.S. Military Prison, later Pacific Branch, U.S. Disciplinary Barracks, 1915. In 1909 construction began on the huge concrete main cell block, designed by Major Reuben Turner, which remains the island's dominant feature. It was completed in 1912.
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary from the exercise yard The United States Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz were acquired by the
United States Department of Justice on October 12, 1933, and the island was designated as a
federal prison in August 1934. Alcatraz was designed to hold prisoners who continuously caused trouble at other federal prisons. At 9:40 am on August 11, 1934, the first batch of 137 prisoners arrived at Alcatraz, arriving by railroad from the United States Penitentiary in
Leavenworth, Kansas, to
Santa Venetia, California. They were escorted to Alcatraz, while handcuffed in high security coaches and guarded by 60 special
FBI agents,
U.S. Marshals and railway security officials. Most of the prisoners were notorious bank robbers and murderers. During the 29 years it was in use, the prison held some of the most notorious criminals in American history, Others included
Mickey Cohen,
Arthur R. "Doc" Barker, and
Alvin "Creepy" Karpis, who served more time at Alcatraz than any other inmate. Alcatraz Island also served as a
residential community for Bureau of Prisons staff and their families. Correctional officers and their families lived in designated apartment buildings on the island. Children attended a dedicated school and, years later, many created an
Alumni Association to share memories and reflect on their distinctive experience growing up on “
The Rock.” Contrary to popular belief, it was possible to escape and swim all of the way to shore. During its 29 years of operation, the penitentiary claimed that no prisoner successfully escaped. A total of
36 prisoners made 14 escape attempts, two men trying twice. 23 were caught alive, six were shot and killed during their escape, two drowned, and five are listed as "missing and presumed drowned". The most violent incident occurred on May 2, 1946, when a failed escape attempt by six prisoners led to the
Battle of Alcatraz. Perhaps the most famous is the
intricate escape, carried out on June 11, 1962, by
Frank Morris,
John Anglin, and
Clarence Anglin. The three men are believed to have drowned in their attempt. No bodies were ever found, sparking speculation that they made it to shore and escaped. On June 11, 1962, brothers John and Clarence Anglin and Frank Morris escaped
Alcatraz prison. John, Clarence, and Frank were all doing time for committing crimes such as bank robbery. They did this by digging through a vent for approximately three months, once they reached the top it took additional time to file down the bolts of the roof vents. They used sharpened spoons, a vacuum cleaner motor drill, and any other tools they could find to make the hole in the vent bigger and get through the bolted roof top vent. To fulfill their plan of escaping they made realistic dummy heads by using
papier-m%C3%A2ch%C3%A9 to disguise them while the guards did nightly checks. They used hair clippings to make it believable that they were still sleeping in their beds during nightly checks. Getting out of the prison was only half their plan: they had to make it 1.25 miles to shore in shark infested waters. They created
rafts out of prison rain jackets and several
life preservers; they were able to contract this idea from magazines they had read while in prison. They came up with a waterproof glue as well to keep the raft together in the water. Then they made wooden paddles out of leftover wood scraps and plywood found around the prison. To inflate their raft they stole a
concertina. At around 10pm on June 11th 1962 they made the escape and were never seen again. A fourth prisoner, Allen West, had intended to escape with Morris and the Anglins, but failed to get out of his cell in time. He later cooperated with the FBI during their investigation, revealing the finer details of the escape plan. Although most escapees were caught or drowned, in 1962, prisoner
John Paul Scott made it to the shore. He was so weary that police found him unconscious and in
hypothermic shock. The annual
Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon includes a required swim from the island to the bay shore.
Closing of the prison There are several reasons that Alcatraz closed as a penitentiary in 1963. The penitentiary cost much more to operate than other prisons (nearly $10 per prisoner per day, as opposed to $3 per prisoner per day at Atlanta). Additionally, there was no source of fresh water on the island; nearly one million gallons per week had to be transported from the mainland.[https://www.history.com/articles/alcatraz-closed Half a century of salt
water saturation had severely eroded the buildings and three people had purportedly escaped in 1962. In the years after its closure, the San Francisco mayor's office received various public proposals to repurpose Alcatraz Island.
Native American occupation Alcatraz Island was occupied by Native American activists for the first time on March 8, 1964. The protest, proposed by Lakota Sioux activist
Belva Cottier and joined by about 35 others, was reported by, among others, the
San Francisco Chronicle and the
San Francisco Examiner. Beginning on November 20, 1969, a group of
Native Americans called
United Indians of All Tribes, mostly college students from San Francisco, occupied the island to protest federal policies related to American Indians. Some of them were children of Native Americans who had relocated in the city as part of the
Bureau of Indian Affairs' (BIA)
Indian termination policy, which was a series of laws and policies aimed at the assimilation of Native Americans into mainstream US society. It encouraged Native Americans to move away from the
Indian reservations and into cities to take advantage of health, educational and employment opportunities. A number of employees of the Bureau of Indian Affairs also occupied Alcatraz at that time, including Doris Purdy, an amateur photographer, who later produced footage of her stay on the island. The occupiers, who stayed on the island for nearly two years, demanded that the island's facilities be adapted and new structures built for an Indian education center, ecology center, and cultural center. The American Indians claimed the island by provisions of the
Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) between the US and the Sioux; they said the treaty promised to return all retired, abandoned, or out-of-use federal lands to the native peoples from whom they were acquired. Indians of All Tribes claimed Alcatraz Island by the "
Right of Discovery"; as historian Troy R. Johnson states in
The Occupation of Alcatraz Island, generations of
indigenous peoples knew about Alcatraz at least 10,000 years before any European knew about any part of North America. Begun by urban Indians of San Francisco, the occupation attracted other Native Americans from across the country, including
American Indian Movement (AIM) urban activists from
Minneapolis. During the nineteen months and nine days of occupation by the American Indians, several buildings at Alcatraz were damaged or destroyed by fire, including the lighthouse keeper's home, the warden's home, the Officers' Club, the recreation hall, and the Coast Guard quarters. The origin of the fires is disputed. The US government demolished a number of other buildings (mostly apartments) after the occupation had ended.
Graffiti from the period of Native American occupation is still visible at many locations on the island. During the occupation, President
Richard Nixon rescinded the Indian termination policy, designed by earlier administrations to end federal recognition of many tribes and their special relationship with the US government. He established a new
policy of self-determination, in part as a result of the publicity and awareness created by the occupation. The occupation ended on June 11, 1971.
Alcatraz under the National Park Service In 1972, the
National Park Service purchased Alcatraz along with Fort Mason from the U.S. Army to establish the
Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Under "An Act to Establish the Golden Gate National Recreation Area" President
Richard Nixon allocated $120 million for land acquisition and development of the area. It operates as a tourist site and museum dedicated to its time as a federal penitentiary. Operating costs still remain one of its biggest challenges. On May 4, 2025, President
Donald Trump proposed reopening the island's prison. Later that night, Trump told reporters that his Alcatraz plan was "just an idea I've had" to counter the "radicalized judges [that] want to have trials for every single—think of it—every single person that's in our country illegally," a reference to his invocation of the
Alien Enemies Act to conduct
mass deportations of Venezuelan and Salvadoran illegal immigrants, which had been blocked by multiple judges. The
White House budget in 2026 requested $152 million to reopen the prison as a secure facility. ==Landmarks==