Alcatraz Island

Alcatraz Island Alcatraz Island is part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Welcome to Golden Gate NPS social media account. Please be considerate of other fan's opinions.
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Alcatraz Island offers a close-up look at the site of the first lighthouse and US built fort on the West Coast, the infamous federal penitentiary long off-limits to the public, and the 18 month occupation by Indians of All Tribes which saved the tribes. Rich in history, there is also a natural side to the Rock—gardens, tide pools, bird colonies, and bay views beyond compare. We hope this will beco

me a place where fans feel comfortable sharing information and experiences about Alcatraz with one another. While our social platforms are an open forum, they are also family friendly, so please keep your comments and wall posts clean. In addition to keeping it family friendly, we ask that you follow our posting guidelines here. If you do not comply, your message will be removed. We do not allow graphic, obscene, explicit or racial comments or submissions, nor do we allow comments that are abusive, hateful or intended to defame anyone or any organization. We do not allow solicitations or advertisements. This includes promotion or endorsement of any financial, commercial or non-governmental agency. Such posts and/or links are subject to deletion. People who continue to post such content and/or links may be subject to page participation restrictions and/or removal from the page. We do not allow attempts to defame or defraud any financial, commercial or non-governmental agency. We do not allow comments that suggest or encourage illegal activity. You participate at your own risk, taking personal responsibility for your comments, your username and any information provided. Posting of external links on this site that are intended as advertising (or to drive traffic to websites unrelated to Alcatraz), or do not contribute to dialog and discussions about Alcatraz may be deleted. People who continue to post such links may be subject to page participation restrictions and/or removal from the page. External links do not constitute official endorsement on behalf of the U.S. National Park Service or the U.S. Department of Interior. For official information about Alcatraz Island, please visit our Web site at: http://www.nps.gov/alca

Juneteenth provides us with the opportunity to reflect on the meaning of freedom in the United States. On June 19, 1865,...
06/19/2026

Juneteenth provides us with the opportunity to reflect on the meaning of freedom in the United States.

On June 19, 1865, Union troops marched into Galveston, Texas, freeing enslaved people in areas that remained under Confederate control — more than a year and a half after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect in 1863. After the Civil War, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude across the country in April 1864 -- with one exception.

The amendment expressly allowed involuntary servitude to continue “as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,”. This meant that incarcerated people in the U.S. could be forced to work without pay. Between 1860 and 1960, the military and the Bureau of Prison compelled people incarcerated on Alcatraz to work, shaping the island with pickaxes and working in workshops. Starting during WWII, incarcerated men could earn the privilege of a paid job, where they received 5-17 cents an hour, about half of minimum wage at the time. There are nearly 2 million people behind bars in the country, many of them people of color. Today, if incarcerated individuals are paid for work, they earn on average 13-52 cents per hour.

started in Texas, but it has spread and become an important day to celebrate the end of slavery, gather as a community, reflect on the past, and look to the future. In two weeks, the nation will celebrate Independence Day. From now till then, we contemplate our nation’s journey toward freedom and liberty for all.

📷Visitors at Alcatraz contemplate the lives of the men incarcerated at the prison. Photo courtesy Alison Taggart-Barone.

“I left Alcatraz on the 21st of September, and I saw for the first time in 19 years the stars in the sky (and they were ...
06/19/2026

“I left Alcatraz on the 21st of September, and I saw for the first time in 19 years the stars in the sky (and they were beautiful!).” – John Paul Chase, incarcerated at Alcatraz

Fresh air, stars, and nature were privileges enjoyed by only a very few men incarcerated at Alcatraz. Elliott Michener was one of the few trusted to work in the gardens on the island. He created gardens complete with terraces, pathways and a greenhouse. Elliott enriched the soil with ash from the incinerator and food scraps from the kitchen. For years after being paroled, Elliott wrote to the warden’s wife, Edna Swope, asking after his roses. He eventually settled in southern California and was a lifelong gardener.

In prisons today, gardens can provide healthy and peaceful spaces, build community, and help incarcerated people gain valuable job skills. More recently, Gardens of Alcatraz has worked with Insight Garden Program to host a farmer’s market in the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla. In addition to the fresh food and bright flowers, the market brought joy, laughter and humanity to an otherwise bleak space. The connection between the Alcatraz historic gardens and Central California Women’s Facility continues to grow with seeds from Chowchilla being planted on Alcatraz by families of incarcerated people.

We invite you to visit Alcatraz this summer and find a moment of peace and reflection in the restored gardens. 🌻

Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy

📷Alcatraz gardens, then and now, with unknown incarcerated man. NPS Photo, Golden Gate National Park Archives.
📷Sol Mercado from Planting Justice, Troy Williams from Restorative Media and an Alcatraz park ranger. Courtesy Sol Mercado
📷California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations garden program in Chowchilla. Courtesy Sol Mercado.

Join us on June 19 at 3:50 PM for a special walking tour celebrating Juneteenth. While it marks the day in 1865 when the...
06/16/2026

Join us on June 19 at 3:50 PM for a special walking tour celebrating Juneteenth. While it marks the day in 1865 when the last of the enslaved people in Texas were freed under the Emancipation Proclamation, the holiday gives us the opportunity to reflect on the meaning of freedom in the United States today.

During this walking tour, learn about the stories of Black men on Alcatraz and their efforts to secure their own freedom.

The tour is free and does not require a reservation. However, you must purchase a ferry ticket to the island. For this program, we recommend taking the 3:20 PM ferry.

🎟️Purchase tickets at https://www.alcatrazcitycruises.com/

📷 Correctional Officer Sam Hill talks with Park Ranger John Cantwell. NPS / Tim Brazil

that Alcatraz was the site of a peaceful protest by Native Americans that lasted 19 months, from 1969-1971? Known as t...
06/05/2026

that Alcatraz was the site of a peaceful protest by Native Americans that lasted 19 months, from 1969-1971? Known as the Occupation of Alcatraz, this event launched an indigenous movement for sovereignty, power, and independence.

Join us on June 11 at 3:50 PM for a special walking tour focused on the Occupation. Afterwards, explore the new exhibit Welcome to Indian Land on Alcatraz.

The tour is free and does not require a reservation. However, you must purchase a ferry ticket to the island. For this program, we recommend taking the 3:20 PM ferry.

🎟️ Purchase tickets at https://www.alcatrazcitycruises.com/
Learn more about the exhibit: https://www.nps.gov/alca/welcome-to-indian-land.htm

📷Joseph Morris Alcatraz Occupation Collection 'proved a point' poster. GGNRA Park Collection, GOGA 35283 F2
📷Join us for a walking tour on Alcatraz Island! NPS Photo

Join us in June for the next installments of the Formerly Incarcerated Speaker Series on Alcatraz Island. 🎤 During these...
06/04/2026

Join us in June for the next installments of the Formerly Incarcerated Speaker Series on Alcatraz Island. 🎤 During these events, people with experience in prisons and jails share their transformational journeys, including ways they are helping other people through the reentry process today.

📍6/6: Leonard Boone, Peer Mentor, Rising Scholars Program
📍 6/13: Mariah Cenea, Student Fellow, Creating Restorative Opportunities and Programs (CROP)

Interested in learning more? See the schedule at https://go.nps.gov/FormerlyIncarceratedSpeakers

🎟️ While the event is free, you must purchase a ticket to the island. This ticket is good for the entire day and includes the audio tour of the cell house and any other talks or walking tours happening on the island.

In 1864, the U.S. forced the Modoc living along the California-Oregon border to abandon their ancient homeland, and move...
05/29/2026

In 1864, the U.S. forced the Modoc living along the California-Oregon border to abandon their ancient homeland, and move to the reservation of the Klamath, a rival tribe. Caught between a rock and a hard place with the Klamath persecuting the Modoc on the reservation, and white settlers resisting the Modoc who attempted to return home, some Modoc led by Keintpoos (Captain Jack) fought back.

Using their knowledge of the terrain, 50-60 Modoc warriors held out against more than 1,000 U.S. soldiers, forcing the Army to negotiate. During the peace conference, a group of Modoc killed members of the U.S. delegation, including General Edward Canby. In Modoc tradition, if the leader of a war party died, everyone had to return home to elect a new leader, so the Modoc reasoned that the General’s death would force his soldiers to retreat. However, Canby’s death had quite the opposite effect. Public sympathy for the Modoc’s plight quickly waned and the Army intensified their efforts to drive the Modoc out.

At war’s end, six Modoc, including Keintpoos, were tried for the murder of Canby. The trial was riddled with irregularities, including no defense attorney for the Modoc and the defendants’ translator was also a witness for the prosecution. All six defendants were sentenced to death by hanging. However, resurgent public sympathy for the Modoc resulted in the last-minute commutations of the two youngest defendants, Barncho and Slolux. They would instead be imprisoned on the island fortress of Alcatraz. While Slolux was eventually allowed to rejoin his people in exile in Oklahoma, Barncho would succumb to Alcatraz’s damp, windy climate, dying of scrofula (a bacterial infection) on this day in 1875.



Lava Beds National Monument

Names are spelled as they appear in “Modoc: The Tribe That Wouldn’t Die” by Cheewa James
📷Grave marker for Barncho at Golden Gate National Cemetery. NPS Photo
📷Modern Modoc medicine flag at Captain Jack’s Stronghold in Lava Beds National Monument. NPS Photo/Ray Dillingham
📷Sunset at Captain Jack’s Stronghold at Lava Beds National Monument. NPS Photo/Ray Dillingham

In honor of , we commemorate the legacy of Rabbi Rudolph Coffee. Coffee provided spiritual refreshment (no pun intended...
05/26/2026

In honor of , we commemorate the legacy of Rabbi Rudolph Coffee. Coffee provided spiritual refreshment (no pun intended) to Jewish men incarcerated at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary from 1934, until shortly before his death in 1955. While much of his focus was on the specific needs of practicing Jews in the carceral system, he helped secure the right to the free exercise of religious obligations for all incarcerated individuals.

As the Jewish chaplain for these three institutions, Coffee advocated for the rights of the men in his care to practice their religion freely while behind bars. One of the most prominent issues he tackled was the lack of kosher meals in prisons, a necessity for many observant Jews. It is largely thanks to the efforts of Rabbi Coffee that the rights of incarcerated individuals with religious dietary needs are legally respected.

Rabbi Coffee was also a prominent advocate for prison reform, speaking against what he termed as “hard-boiled discipline” in favor of the more humane treatment of incarcerated individuals. Prior to his relocation to California, he had also spearheaded a Big Brother program for incarcerated and newly released Jewish youths in Chicago.

📷Rabbi Randolph Coffee from "The Policeman and the Public," Police Journal, March 1923.

This month marks Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! Asian immigrants and Asian Americans have been part...
05/24/2026

This month marks Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! Asian immigrants and Asian Americans have been part of San Francisco’s history for a long, long time. In the 1800s especially, thousands of Chinese immigrants came to the country seeking opportunities. Some of these immigrants found work here on Alcatraz Island.

On the military island fort, Chinese men worked as domestic servants in the homes of officers, often as cooks. Because California’s population exploded during the Gold Rush, most of that population was men who had the flexibility and safety to leave home. For similar reasons, most Chinese immigrants were men.

There were fewer women out west to do traditional “women’s work.” So instead, Chinese men found a niche in the domestic service. In the 1880 census, two young men listed as Ah Hung and Sam Lee were working as servants on Alcatraz in the officers’ homes. Fast forward to 1962 in the federal penitentiary, Wayne Fong, a Chinese man, was transferred from Leavenworth Penitentiary to Alcatraz on the recommendation that he be considered for the position of the warden’s residence orderly.

📷The Chinese cook, grinning from the doorway, Chinatown, San Francisco, c. 1896-1906. Library of Congress
📷An 1882 photo of Officers’ Row on Alcatraz Island shows the homes in which Sam Lee and Ah Hung likely worked. Bancroft Library
📷This detail of Wayne Fong’s page in the Alcatraz Warden’s Notebook reveals the reason Fong was transferred. Note that he has no former institutional rule violations which was uncommon among men incarcerated at USP Alcatraz. National US National Archives

Today is , celebrating the abundance of plants and animals and their importance for sustaining life on Earth. Did you k...
05/22/2026

Today is , celebrating the abundance of plants and animals and their importance for sustaining life on Earth. Did you know that there are lush gardens thriving on Alcatraz today?

When the Army first started building on the island it was a barren rock. They brought soil over from nearby Angel Island to shape the island and give plants a place to live.

Now there are over 200 different plant species thriving here on Alcatraz. These include plants from the 1860's brought by soldiers’ families, seeds imported in the 1930's by the warden’s secretary, and introduced by the National Park Service to replace those lost.

In 2003, the Garden Conservancy and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy formed a partnership with the National Park Service to restore and maintain the gardens on Alcatraz. Some plants survived the 40 years of neglect between when the prison closed and this period, including 10 species of roses. One unique rose, the Bardou Job, originated in France in the 1880's. Warden Johnston is believed to have first brought the rose over to the island in the late 1930s or 1940s.

Today, the gardens are cared for by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and many dedicated volunteers. To learn more about our gardens, visit: https://www.nps.gov/alca/learn/nature/gardens.htm

📷: Infographic of flowers on Alcatraz and photograph of the burgundy Bardou Job rose. NPS / Jacqueline Quale

05/20/2026

that Alcatraz Island is the home of at least twelve native bees? 🐝

On , we celebrate these tiny but mighty pollinators. Bees and other pollinators are essential to a healthy planet. They turn flowers into fruits, helping to feed the world. Today important bee habitats are threatened. The gardens of Alcatraz are an unlikely haven for bees in the San Francisco Bay.

How can you help? Plant pollinator-friendly gardens, create bee houses, reduce the use of harmful chemicals. To learn more, check out https://www.fao.org/world-bee-day/en/

📹: Large black and white bumble bee bops around from one orange California poppy to the next among the vibrant flowers of the Alcatraz gardens.

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B201 Fort Mason
San Francisco, CA
94123

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