Visitors must climb from the boat up a steel-rung ladder to a pier at Prisoner's Harbor. When the pier is closed, landings are via skiff onto the beach.


Historical Information
The building of the original pier probably coincided with the expansion of the island sheep operation which occurred under the management of Dr. James Barron Shaw from 1853 to 1869. An 1869 photograph shows a substantial wharf at Prisoner's Harbor. It was the first large wharf built in Santa Barbara County and was the artery through which essential goods and supplies have flowed to and from the island ever since.

Justinian Caire (an island investor from 1869 to 1880 and the sole owner beginning in the 1880s) also realized the importance of Prisoner's Harbor as the only good landing for supplies and set to work improving the small area known as La Playa (the beach) as the entrance gate to his island enterprises. To maintain the pier Caire imported a pile driver to the island and planted eucalyptus groves in the canyon for use as wharf pilings when the need arose. During a 1903 pier renovation, the pier was measured at 582 feet long.

During the Stanton era (1937-1987), the pier would continue to be modified and repaired until being destroyed during winter storms in 1942 to 1943. Shortly after, a new 360-foot pier was built to replace this destroyed pier. In 1966 the Navy assumed responsibility for the maintenance and repair of the pier, renovating it in 1966 and again in 1993. After the transfer of 8,500 acres of eastern Santa Cruz Island from The Nature Conservancy to the National Park Service in 2000, the deteriorated pier was removed and replaced with a new pier in 2002.