The imposing outcrop of San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz Island is synonymous with inescapable fear and unforgiving intimidation—its notoriety inextricably linked to its 29-year tenure as a maximum-security federal penitentiary. While this era of infamy has captured the public imagination, it represents only a single chapter of the island’s complex historical narrative. While surveying San Francisco Bay in August 1775, Spanish explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala chartered a prominent rocky island as “La…
