First off, McNeil Island was, indeed, a tiny seven-square-miles island in Puget Sound west of Tacoma. Its name comes from William Henry McNeil, a captain of some Hudson Bay Company steamers. Oregon Trail pioneer and advocate, Ezra Meeker had a homestead on McNeil Island where the prison yard would be but sold it in 1862. (Isn’t it interesting how history overlaps?)
In 1867, Congress authorized a territorial jail in the Washington Territory; in 1875 this became a federal penitentiary. The original cellhouse was built in 1873; by the end of 1875 the total prison population was nine. There are several websites available to you giving a chronological history of the place and are most interesting reads. At one time, the island provided for itself by raising vegetables, fruit, pork, beef and milk. By 1947, the incarcerated population was 320 individuals. Additional prison cells were added as the inmate population increased as did the housing facilities for the prison staff. McNeil ultimately had a capacity of 853 prisoners; the prison was closed in 2011and the land was deeded to the Washington State Department of Fish & Wildlife for continued use as a wildlife refuge.
One of the more famous inmates was Robert Franklin Stroud whose story was portrayed by Burt Lancaster in the movie Birdman of Alcatraz. (He was at McNeil but the movie was Alcatraz??)
Perhaps one of your family members was a “guest” at McNeil Island? Want to find out?
The McNeil Island Penitentiary records, spanning 1875-2010, are primarily held by the National Archives at Seattle and the Washington State Archives, Digital Archives. They include inmate case files, mugshots and registers of prisoners received. Key digital records are accessible through Ancestry.com and the Washington State Archives, Digital Archives (www.digitalarchives.wa.gov).
