Angel Island (California) encyclopedia topics

Access

Access to the island is by private boat or public ferry from San Francisco, Tiburon or Vallejo. There is no weekday ferry service during the winter except from Tiburon and San Francisco.

Bicycles can be brought to the island on the ferry and used on the island's main roads. Bikes and Segways can also be rented. Dogs are not allowed. Roller skates, roller blades and skateboards are prohibited. No wood fires are allowed but there are designated barbecue and picnic areas available to use. A few campsites are also available for reservation. Night travel on the island is prohibited in some areas for reasons of park security and public safety.

History

Until about ten thousand years ago, Angel Island was connected to the mainland; it was cut off by the rise in sea levels due to the end of the ice age. From about two thousand years ago the island was a fishing and hunting site for Coast Miwok Native Americans. In 1775 the Spanish naval vessel San Carlos made the first European entry to the San Francisco Bay under the command of Juan de Ayala. Ayala anchored off Angel Island, and gave it its modern name (Isla de los Angeles); the bay where he anchored is now known as Ayala Cove.

Like much of the California coast, Angel Island was subsequently used for cattle ranching. In 1863, during the American Civil War, the U.S. Army established a camp on the island (now known as Camp Reynolds or the West Garrison), and it subsequently became an infantry garrison during the US campaigns against Native American peoples in the West. In the later nineteenth century, the army designated the entire island as "Fort McDowell" and developed further facilities there, including what is now called the East Garrison or Camp McDowell. During the Spanish-American War the island served as a discharge depot for returning troops. It continued to serve as a transit station throughout the first half of the twentieth century, with troops engaged in the First and Second World Wars embarking and returning there. During World War II, Japanese, and German POWs were also held on the island. The army abandoned the island in 1946, but returned in the 1950s when a Nike missile base was constructed; this was decommissioned as obsolete in 1962.

Angel Island Immigration Station

From 1910 to 1940, the Angel Island Immigration Station processed approximately 175,000 Asian immigrants entering into the US, serving a similar role to Ellis Island for European immigrants. Angel Island is sometimes referred to as "The Ellis Island of the West." The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 provided tough entry restrictions, so many immigrants waited on the island for as long as two years while they exhausted appeals. The conditions of buildings on Angel Island were poor. Many of these immigrants carved poems in Chinese on the walls of the island's buildings, poems which have been anthologized and studied by scholars. One unhappy prisoner carved in the wall, "For what reason must I sit in jail? It is only because my country is weak and my family poor." A fire burned down the administration building in 1940, and all subsequent immigration processing took place in San Francisco.

A quarantine station was opened in Ayala Cove (then known as Hospital Cove) in 1891.

Modern Uses of Angel Island

In 1938, hearings concerning charges of membership in a proscribed political party against labor leader Harry Bridges were held on Angel Island before Dean James Landis of Harvard Law School. After eleven weeks of testimony that filled nearly 8,000 pages, Landis found in favor of Bridges. The decision was accepted by the United States Department of Labor and Bridges was freed.

In 1954, the State Park Commission authorized California State Parks to purchase 37 acres around Ayala Cove, marking the birth of Angel Island State Park. Additional acreage was purchased four years later in 1958. The last federal Department of Defense personnel withdrew in 1962, turning over the entire island as a state park in December of the same year.

In the 1970s, the Chinese American community successfully lobbied the State of California to designate the Immigration Station as a State Landmark. Today, the Angel Island Immigration Station is a federally designated National Historic Landmark. The Angel Island Immigration Station is presently being renovated by the California State Parks and is scheduled for public reopening in May 2008.

There are two active United States Coast Guard lighthouses on the island, one at Point Blunt (see Point Blunt Light) and the other at Point Stuart.

Other

On June 11, 1962, three prisoners apparently escaped from the prison on nearby Alcatraz Island. Some of the materials used in their escape attempt later washed up on Angel Island, aiding in the investigation by the FBI.

Extirpation (root and branch) of the non-native Eucalyptus tree is underway in an effort to restore the original Oak woodland-grassland environment.

It is often believed by fans of the Sonic the Hedgehog that Angel Island in the games is related to the real Angel Island, especially for the fact that the American headquarters of Sega are in San Francisco.