wet n wild phoenix Visible from Fisherman s Wharf, Alcatraz (aka The Rock ) has seen a checkered history. Juan Manuel A

Visible from Fisherman s Wharf, Alcatraz (aka The Rock ) has seen a checkered history. Juan Manuel Ayala, who named it after the pelicans that nested on the island, discovered it in 1775. From the 1850s to 1933, when the army vacated the island, it served as a military post protecting the bay shoreline. In 1934 the buildings were converted into a maximum-security prison. Given the sheer cliffs, treacherous currents, and frigid temperatures of the waters, it was believed wet n wild phoenix to be an escape-proof prison. Among the gangsters who were penned in cell blocks A through D were Al Capone; Robert wet n wild phoenix Stroud, the so-called Birdman of Alcatraz (because he was an expert in ornithological diseases); Machine Gun Kelly; and Alvin Karpis. It cost a fortune to keep them imprisoned here because all supplies, including water, had to be shipped in. In 1963, after an apparent escape in which no bodies wet n wild phoenix were recovered, wet n wild phoenix the government closed the prison. In 1969 a group of American Indians chartered a boat to the island to symbolically reclaim it for the Indian people. They occupied the island until 1971, and in 1972 the Rock became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The wildlife driven away during the military and prison years has begun to return the black-crested night heron and other seabirds nest here again and a trail has been built that passes through the island s nature areas. Tours, including an audio tour of the prison block and a slide show, are given by the park s rangers, who entertain their guests with interesting anecdotes.

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Matthew Richard Poole, a native Californian, has authored more than two dozen travel guides to California, Hawaii, and abroad, and is a regular contributor to radio and television travel programs, including numerous guest appearances on the award- winning Bay Area Backroads television show. Before becoming a full-time travel writer and photographer, he worked as an English tutor in Prague, ski instructor in the Swiss Alps, and scuba instructor in Maui. Highly allergic to office buildings and mortgage payments, wet n wild phoenix he spends most of his time traveling wet n wild phoenix the globe searching for new adventures. His other Frommer s titles include California wet n wild phoenix from $70 a Day, San Francisco from $70 a Day, Los Angeles, Portable Los Angeles, the Irreverent Guide to San Francisco, and Portable Disneyland.