LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Alcatraz: Alcatraz Island
built 170 days ago
Following the closing of the penitentiary in 1963, Alcatraz was declared surplus property. In November of 1969, a group of about ninety Native Americans landed on the island and claimed it as Indian land. Over the next nineteen months, a varying number of Native Americans occupied the island. On June 1, 1970 a fire destroyed the warden's house, the keepers' quarters and other buildings on the island. Further damage was done to the island, when the occupants reportedly began stripping copper wiring and tubing from the buildings and selling it as scrap metal. The occupation was brought to an end on June 11, 1971, when a pre-dawn raid was made on the island and the small group of remaining occupants was removed.
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Out in the middle of the San Francisco Bay, the island of Alcatraz is a world unto itself. Isolation, one of the constants of island life for any inhabitant - soldier, guard, prisoner, bird or plant - is a recurrent theme in the unfolding history of Alcatraz. Alcatraz Island is one of Golden Gate National Recreation Area's most popular destinations, offering a close-up look at a historic and infamous federal prison long off-limits to the public. Visitors to the island can not only explore the remnants of the prison, but learn about the Native American occupation of 1969 - 1971, early military fortifications and the West Coast's first (and oldest operating) lighthouse. The island features many natural features as well - gardens, tide pools, bird colonies and bay views beyond compare.
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By 1902, the Alcatraz prison population averaged around 500 men per year, with many of the men serving sentences of two years or less. The wooden barracks on the island had fallen into a ramshackle state, thanks to the damp, salt air and so in 1904, work was begun to modernize the facility. Prisoner work crews began extending the stockade wall and constructing a new mess hall, kitchen, shops, a library and a wash house. Work continued on the prison for the next several years and even managed to survive the Great Earthquake of 1906. The disaster left San Francisco in shambles and a large fissure opened up on Alcatraz, but left the buildings untouched. Prisoners from the heavily damaged San Francisco jail were temporarily housed on the island until the city’s jail could be rebuilt.
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Alcatraz Island was once a lonely maximum security prison which housed America’s most wanted criminals for 29 years, and whose population, including guards and staff, never rose above 500. Now it is San Francisco’s most popular attraction, with over a million temporary “residents” a year. Its location made hard to miss when the Spaniards started their explorations starting in 1769. One of them named it “Isla de los Alcatraces” after the Pelicans who resided there in great numbers. The first lighthouse on North America’s West Coast was finished in 1854, and it became an Army artillery garrison in 1859. During the 1906 earthquake, San Francisco’s municipal jail was damaged, and the prisoners were transferred to Alcatraz for safe-keeping.
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On March 21, 1907, Alcatraz was officially designated as the Western US Military Prison. 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. In order to accommodate the new cell block, the Citadel, a three-story barracks, was demolished down to the first floor, which was actually below ground level. The building had been constructed in an excavated pit (creating a dry "moat") to enhance its defensive potential. The first floor was then incorporated as a basement to the new cell block, giving rise to the popular legend of "dungeons" below the main cell block.
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Alcatraz is best known as "the Rock" - a prison where the worst of the worst were incarcerated. However, the island is ... the site of the first California lighthouse,. The island's name itself is derived from the Spanish word alcatraces, meaning "strange bird" - a reference to pelicans living on the island when it was visited by the Spanish. The name "Alcatraces" was actually originally given to what is now Yerba Buena Island in the San Francisco Bay. In 1775, the name transferred to the current site. The US Coast Guard Survey shortened the name to Alcatraz in 1851.
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