Download or read book THE ROCK: A HISTORY OF ALCATRAZ ISLAND, 1847-1972 written by and published by Jeffrey Frank Jones. This book was released on with total page 600 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: PREFACE This historic resource study of Alcatraz Island does not have an approved task directive. However, it has been prepared in accordance with the standards and regulations concerning historic preservation. The objective has been to complete a document that will prove useful to planning, management, preservation, and interpretation. Direct quotations herein have on rare occasion been carefully modified by minor punctuation .changes. Care has been taken not to change the original meaning. The actual rank of army officers is used throughout the report, their brevet grades being ignored. Also, in describing the post-Civil War years, officers are referred to by their regular army grades, not by their wartime positions. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The great bulk of the research on Alcatraz Island was done in the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and in the Federal Archives and Records Center in San Bruno, California. At San Bruno my thanks go to Jo Ann Williamson, Robyn Gottfried, Daniel Nealand, and Mary Kiely, all of whom cheerfully put up with my demands. When my research notes were stolen and I had to return to San Bruno to repeat the research, these people still welcomed me. My sincere appreciation goes to the entire staff in Old Military Records, Army and Navy Branch, National Archives. There are too many to name and I am bound to forget someone, but I am in the debt of that whole grand group of people who kept the records coming month after month. A special thanks goes to Dr. Elaine C. Everley, who graciously replied to my letters of inquiry on a number of esoteric subjects. In the Audiovisual Archives Division, both Judy Pratt, Motion Picture Branch, and Douglas Thurman, Still Picture Branch, assisted me greatly in locating film pertaining to all phases of Alcatraz's history. My thanks go, too, to Graeme McCluggage, Cartographic Archives Division, who helped me examine maps of the San Francisco Bay Area for a solid week. This was one of the most exhausting weeks in my entire research career, but it was also one of the most rewarding. Thomas Lipscomb at Suitland, Maryland, was most understanding when I was called away at a moment's notice and when, a few weeks later, I returned to ask for the same records. My than-ks also to Donald Mosholder, who introduced me to the records of the Bureau of Prisons.