VACAVILLE - Vacaville photographer Dudley Owens was always fascinated by Alcatraz. So, when they opened up the island for tours, he scheduled a visit and took his photographic equipment along.

Now, almost 30 years later, Owens has what might be the most comprehensive collection of photos of what was the home to the famed 'Birdman of Alcatraz.' About 30 of them are on display at The Vacaville Art Gallery.

Owens displayed 'Ghost Hands' from Alcatraz in the Vacaville juried art show a few years ago and won first place. In the suggestion box there was a note telling Owens how he appreciated the photo. The author was John Dekker, an Alcatraz inmate in the mid-1950s, who was a Vacaville resident. The two connected and Dekker invited Owens to accompany him to the annual Alcatraz reunion with former guards and inmates.

'I got to be friends with the park ranger,' Owens said. 'I got to go all kind of places the public doesn't get to go.'

Owens was able to get inside the old hospital for photographs, including the wing where the Birdman was held. In his collection is a picture of the guard who watched over the Birdman in the hospital wing. And, then there was the time he got to stay overnight and sleep in a cell there.

His black-and-white collection also includes environmental portraits of former inmates and guards. 'I realized they were getting old,' Owens said. 'Now, almost all the guys are gone.' Included in the exhibit will be memorabilia from Stucker, a Dixon resident who grew up on Alcatraz. And, Dekker plans to be at the reception signing copies of his booking photo.

Owens, a former Daily Republic photo editor, estimated he's probably taken between 500 and 600 photographs at Alcatraz.

Owens hasn't attended a reunion in a few years. He won't go without Dekker, he said. And, he added, there's a lot of structural work being done on the island. 'The prison was built using salt water to mix the cement since there is no fresh water out there. At the time no one realized the salt and cement would interact with the rebar. Now all the rebar is rusting and it's losing its structural integrity in the areas under the old Army fort and main cell block. They have started putting in steel construction beams.'

While most people know Alcatraz as a world-famous penitentiary, the island's history dates back to the Civil War. It was the site for the first American lighthouse on the West Coast and also served as a fort during the Civil War. After that, it was a military prison. When the prison was closed, Alcatraz became the site of a American Indian protest movement that would change modern American history. After the prison sat dormant for six years, American Indians seized the island just before Thanksgiving 1969. Federal marshals removed the last of the occupants in June 1971.

Reach Amy Maginnis-Honey at 427-6957 or amaginnis@dailyrepublic.net.