were several unrealized plans for the island, including one in the 1950s by the City of Richmond to build a heliport and a causeway from Point Isabel and one by the marine engineering company Ben C. Gerwick, Inc. to flatten the hill in order to facilitate industrial and commercial development. At the same time, there were unrealized plans for a public park by Contra Costa County (1955) and the state (1956), followed by an attempt by Richmond in 1961 to buy the island for a small boat harbor. The purchase price proved too expensive for the city. In the 1960s, the property was leased by the Sheep Island Gun Club, which stocked the island with a variety of exotic game birds, including pheasants (1962), chukar and bobwhite quail for shooting. Club members included singer Frank Sinatra and Vic Bergeron, owner of Trader Vic's restaurant. At one point, the club attempted to stock the island with deer, but the deer tended to swim back to the mainland. After many attempts at commercial development, in 1968 the main portion of the island was purchased by the East Bay Regional Park District from a family trust for $625,000, funded by grants from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and California State Recreation and Park Bond. EBRPD later added surrounding tide lands to this initial purchase and the City of Richmond purchased the sand spit and adjoining water lots. The state purchased the final private lot on the sand spit in 1985, with a plan for this to be leased to EBRPD. Despite the change in ownership, the gun club continued to lease the island and kept caretakers there. Development of the park Planning for the park began with the initial public purchase in 1968 but suffered several setbacks. A 1972 concept planning study by an outside consultant was not implemented. EBRPD's 1973 master plan designated the site as a regional shoreline and by 1976 a resource analysis for the island had been prepared and presented at two public hearings in Richmond. This analysis highlighted the value of the island's prehistoric settlements and its natural habitat resources and resulted in a new designation as a regional preserve. Another hiccup came in 1978 when the land use development plan for the main portion of the island in public ownership was not adopted by EBRPD's board. A new EBRPD master plan in 1980 fine-tuned