Alcatraz, also referred to as “The Rock,” is rich in American
history, more so than most people realize. It is the home of the
oldest operating lighthouse on the west coast, a Civil War
fortress that served as the San Francisco Arsenal, the infamous
federal prison, the beginning of the American Indian Red Power
movement, and also a bird sanctuary. In 1775 Spaniard Juan
Manuel de Ayala named the island “La Isla de los Alcatraces”
which translates into “The Island of the Pelicans.” Since then,
the earliest recorded owner of the island is Julian Workman, who
was assigned by Mexican governor Pio Pico to build a lighthouse
on it in June 1846. In 1850 President Millard Fillmore claimed
Alcatraz Island for military use only after America gained
California in the Mexican-American War. As the American Civil
War broke out in the early 1860s, Alcatraz was loaded up with
cannons and served as storage and protection of firearms for the
San Francisco Arsenal. During the war it was also used to
imprison Confederate sympathi