Alcatraz has a buried history that goes back decades before it became the nation's most notorious maximum security prison and one of its currently most popular tourist attractions.
Archaeologists confirmed recently the prison was built on top of a military fort from the Civil War and Reconstruction era. But to get to it, you have to go deep.
Now, without even digging, a team of archaeologists using radar and laser scans has discovered a network of brick tunnels and buildings under the prison’s recreation yard.
Retired Alcatraz park ranger and museum curator John Martini always suspected there was something else beneath his feet.
“There are three big, sealed-up arched doorways leading under the recreation yard and they match the architecture the Army was using and building fortifications in the Presidio in the 1870s,” he said. “And we speculated that they led to sealed-up areas of the island that no one has seen since the prison was constructed in 1912.”
And the new study confirms his suspicions — those tunnels were built in the 1860s or 70s. That means American soldiers inhabited the formidable outpost long before the Birdman of Alcatraz pined for freedom from the island.
Martini was on the island during the research, which reinforces his long-held theory that the government used the old fort as a foundation for the prison.
“I think it leads us to realize there’s more to Alcatraz’s history than Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly and those guys who escaped in 1962,” Martini said.
As researchers make plans for follow-up investigations, Martini hopes the find will increase interest in the entire history of the island, not just its storied time as a prison.