Angel Island (California)
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This article is about Angel Island State Park. For the floating island from the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series, see Angel Island (Sonic).
Angel Island is an island in the middle of San Francisco Bay, offering spectacular views of the San Francisco skyline, the Marin Headlands and Mount Tamalpais. It is a California state park, Angel Island State Park.
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Location
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.
Bicycles can be brought to the island on the ferry and used on the island's main roads. Bikes can also be rented. Dogs are not allowed on the island. Roller skates, roller blades and skateboards are prohibited. No wood fires are allowed.
Night travel on the island is prohibited in some areas for park security and public safety.
History
Three thousand years ago the island was a fishing and hunting site for Coastal Miwok Indians. It was later a haven for Spanish explorer Juan de Ayala, a cattle ranch, and a U.S. Army post.
From 1910 to 1940, the Angel Island Immigration Station processed most of the 1,750,000 Chinese immigrants to the US. 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. 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.
During World War II, Japanese, and German POWs were held on the island, which was also used as a jumping-off point for American soldiers returning from the Pacific. In the 1950s and 60s, the island was home to a Nike missile base.
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.
Today, there are two active United States Coast Guard stations - at Point Blunt and Point Stuart - on the island. Angel Island became a State Park in 1958.
Facilities
A cafe and tram tours are available on weekends in March, April and November, and daily during May -- October.
The trams run regularly scheduled one-hour tours with an audio program including information on the history of the island.
Private boats can use the boat slips or mooring buoys at Ayala Cove; day and overnight fees are collected. Mooring buoys can be used overnight, but the boat slips - and the island itself - are open for use from 8:00 AM to sunset only.
Dock area and finger piers are closed at sunset. After sunset private boats must anchor offshore or on mooring buoys in Ayala Cove.
Groups can reserve the picnic areas and other recreational facilities on the island.
State Park Volunteers provide programs at the island's historic sites on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from May through October. The volunteers also conduct special tours for schools, clubs and other groups. For more information, call the park.
Further reading
- Him Mark Lai, Genny Lim, and Judy Yung, Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940, 1980. ISBN 0295971096.
External links
- Official web site (http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=468)
- Angel Island Association - docent led guided tours/historical interpretation (http://www.angelisland.org)
- UIUC Modern American Poetry: Angel Island Poetry (http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/angel/angel.htm)
- One Chinese American Family history of coming to America as documented in the Chinese Exclusion Act Case Files in the National Archives (http://www.paperson.com/history.htm)
- Angel Island aerial photo from Microsoft Terraserver (http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=4&S=13&Z=10&X=343&Y=2618&W=1&qs=%7cSan+Francisco%7cCA%7c)
- Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation (http://www.aiisf.org/)
- "made in usa: Angel Island Shhh" (http://www.kearnystreet.org/AngelIsland/) is a rice-sack flag installation that explores the identity secrets of Chinese immigrants detained and interrogated in the United States.