Alcatraz Sally Port

The tall sally port gatehouse building and rounded entrance from the road.

Kirke Wrench

Quick Facts

Amenities

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Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

During the 1860s, Alcatraz was the most fortified military site on the West Coast with over 100 cannons facing the bay in case of would-be intruders. The guardhouse was built in 1857, and contained the island's first prison, a US military stockade in the building's basement. That facility was used to house unruly soldiers and during the Civil War, Confederate spies. The guardhouse featured a sally port, an armored, controlled entryway to the fortress on Alcatraz beyond.

Hopi Prisoners

In 1894, 19 Hopi men were arrested by federal troops in Arizona as part of a US policy of using incarceration to intimidate Native Americans who resisted assimilation. The Hopi men were part of a group who refused to send their children to government boarding schools and other disputes with US authorities. They were taken from their homes and kept in the army prison on Alcatraz for a year before their release in September 1895.


Besides being forcibly removed from their homes and families for the 'crime' of defending their culture, the Hopi prisoners lived in dangerous, unsanitary conditions on Alcatraz. During the day, they were made to cut large logs into smaller sections. Their hardship was downplayed by newspapers and their captors, who referred to their forced removal as "rude." Two of the men's wives gave birth to children who died while the men were imprisoned.

Restoring the guardhouse and sally port

The National Park Service completed major repairs to the guardhouse, with special attention paid to improving the structure's ability to withstand earthquakes. The boathouse, added in the 1920s, was removed so that visitors could see and pass through the original sally port entrance constructed in 1857.

Any construction projects on Alcatraz are complicated because supplies and water must be ferried to the island. The guardhouse repairs were especially challenging because the work had to be performed alongside the island's daily visitors, who traveled through the actual construction site. Delivery of the building materials was carefully coordinated around visitor arrival and departure times and the breeding seasons of the island's bird population.

Certified hazardous material contractors removed the building's unsafe lead paint and repainted the building with environmentally friendly paint that would stand up to the harsh marine environment. The NPS rehabilitated special historic guardhouse features, including the defensive dry moat, the cannon port "embrasure" and the lower prison room.

The 1920s boathouse addition was removed so that visitors could better understand and experience the guardhouse and sally port entranceway as it was originally constructed.