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Period: 1579 to
Alcatraz Remains Unexplored
English voyager Sir Francis Drake passes by the San Francisco Bay in 1579 but Alcatraz remained unexplored until 1775 with a land expedition. -
Possible Sighting of Alcatraz
Sgt. Jose Francisco Ortega (chief scout for Gasper de Portola) may have caught sight of Alcatraz when he practically stumbled upon the Golden Gate in 1769. -
A Sighting
3 years after the possible sighting of Alcatraz, Captain Pedro Fages and Father Juan Crespi were on an expedition exploring the area we now call Berkeley and looked west towards the Golden Gate. Then they saw the principal islands. -
Fages' Journal
"Within the estuary, we saw five islands, three of them making a triangle opposite the mouth, with a large distance between them; and the nearest of them to the channel at the mouth [Alcatraz] must have been over a league from it. The largest of the three [Angel], which must have been some three leagues in circuit, was very grassy and with considerable trees on it; the other two [Alcatraz and Yerba Buena] were smaller and also displayed considerable greenery." -
An Exploration
We are fairly certain the first European to visit the island was Frigate-Lt. don Juan Manuel de Ayala, who sailed the first ship into the San Francisco Bay in August of 1775. -
Frigate-Lt. don Juan Manuel de Ayala's Journal
The Lieutenant wasn't impressed enough with the island to create a harbor there but continued on to what we know now as Angel Island. However, he did say this about the island: "I rather preferred to pass onward in search of another island, which when I reached it proved so arid and steep there was not even a boat-harbor there; I named the island de los Alcatrazes [Island of the Pelicans] because of their being so plentiful there."
