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ALCATRAZ
10,000 Years of Life on The Rock
Nicky Leach
64 pages. Oversized 10”x13”
ISBN 1-58071-040-9
$9.95 
This
stunningly beautiful, oversized book is lavishly illustrated
with breathtaking color imagery by America’s leading
landscape photographers. In addition to the stunning
photography, the book also includes detailed maps of
the park and region and insightful, heartfelt narratives
detailing the park’s natural and human histories.
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On
March 21, 1963, U.S. Penitentiary Alcatraz closed its
doors for the last time. For 29 years, the three-story
concrete cellhouse atop the windswept 22-acre island
in San Francisco Bay had housed inmates who had worn
out their welcome in other penitentiaries—from
incorrigible gangsters like Al Capone to petty thieves,
murderers, kidnappers, and political prisoners. There
would be no last-minute reprieve. Attorney General Robert
Kennedy’s decision to retire the aging facility
was final.
Like its predecessor, the U.S. Army, which had operated
a fortress then a military prison on the island from
1853 to 1933, the Bureau of Prisons could not afford
the millions of dollars necessary to repair the crumbling
prison. It had always been expensive to run and had
generated controversy from the beginning. Now, with
the pendulum swing of public opinion favoring rehabilitation,
not retribution, Alcatraz had gone from being a necessary
“big stick prison” during the violent Depression
years to a symbol of a dated penal system criticized
for dishing out “cruel and inhuman punishment”
to caged men.
...Alcatraz Island is a designated National Historic
Landmark and part of Golden Gate National Recreation
Area. It is located in San Francisco Bay, 1.25 miles
from the mainland, and preserves the West Coast’s
first lighthouse, Civil War-era military fortifications,
remnants of the U.S. Federal Penitentiary cellhouse,
signs of the 1969–1971 Native American occupation,
and unique natural features, including endemic flora
and fauna, naturalized flower gardens, tide pools, thriving
bird colonies, and dramatic views.
—From “10,000 Years of Life on The Rock”
by Nicky Leach
10,000
Years of Life on The Rock
Nicky Leach
64 pages. Oversized 10”x13”
ISBN 1-58071-040-9
$9.95
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