If you’ve ever taken a ferry across the San Francisco Bay, or stood on the waterfront at Fisherman’s Wharf, and noticed a much bigger island than Alcatraz sitting close by it, then you’ve seen Angel Island. It looks peaceful now, likely a wonderful place to hike, picnic and feel far away from the city – if you only knew how to get there. It is all of those things, but Angel Island has a lot of stories to tell, and not all of them are pretty.

Let’s talk about the history first, because hidden behind those trees and trails is a past that changed tens of thousands of lives, especially for immigrants arriving on the West Coast. Some people call it the Ellis Island of the West, but that’s being generous. The truth? It was more like a detention center.

First Residents of the Island

Long before Angel Island became a U.S. immigration station, it was home to the Coast Miwok people. For a thousand years, they lived and thrived here, paddling on canoes between islands and the mainland, gathering food, and holding ceremonies on this land. Angel island was a fishing and hunting site for the Miwok, who had at least one village on it.

Spanish explorer Juan de Ayala anchored off the Island in the late Summer of 1775 and gave it its modern name (Isla de los Ángeles), perhaps because he’d tried and failed to anchor at several other places in the bay beforehand. He erected a cross overlooking the small bay on the island where he anchored in thanks, and the inlet is now known as Ayala Cove.

Another possibility is that August 15 is the date of the feast day in honor of the Virgin Mary’s Assumption into Heaven, becoming Queen of the Angels. It was for this reason that a pueblo in southern Alta California was named Los Angeles in 1781, a few years later. Since Ayala entered San Francisco Bay on August 5, and left in the middle of September, the timing would be right.

Author Richard Dana Jr describes the island in his memoir, Two Years Before the Mast, as being “covered with trees to the waters edge.” That was in 1834, and by then the times were a-changing.

Changing Times for Angel Island

First came colonization. Initially the Spanish, then Mexico, and eventually the Americans, claimed the land for their respective empires. As in most of the rest of the U.S., Indigenous people were displaced, and their land was taken over for military and government use.

Then the California Gold Rush brought much bigger change for the Bay Area (and California). In the second half of the nineteenth century Angel Island became a strategic base for the U.S. Army and Navy. Soldiers trained there during the Civil War, and later, it was a launch point for troops heading to the Philippines, during the Spanish-American War. There were cannons, barracks, and a quarantine station, which was used to screen many Chinese immigrants, arriving to live and work in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

Over the one-hundred and fifty odd years since Ayala landed on it, Angel Island has been a little bit of everything: place to live, sacred ground, military outpost, hospital, prison, and (now) park. But one chapter in particular has changed it forever.

Immigration Station: Welcome to America

Between 1910 and 1940, Angel Island housed an immigration station, which was one of the main entry points for people arriving in the U.S. from across the Pacific. The construction of the facility involved the leveling of a Coast Miwok village and a shell mound containing a cemetery. A bad omen if ever there was one.

In the past the immigration station has been likened to a West Coast Ellis Island, but when you think of the immigration station in New York you probably picture smiling faces, American flags, and cheerful European immigrants being greeted by gruff, but fair, officials who say “Welcome to America!”

Angel Island was a totally different story though. There arrivals, who were mostly from Asia (and particularly China), weren’t welcomed. Immigrants were detained for days at a minimum, but mostly weeks, often months and even years!

Why the difference? Because of something called the Chinese Exclusion Act, which passed in 1882. It’s the only federal law to ban immigration solely based on nationality, and it was aimed squarely at the Chinese (as it says on the box). Under the law, Chinese workers couldn’t come to the U.S., couldn’t become citizens, and couldn’t bring family with them, unless they fitted into an extremely narrow set of exceptions.

So of course many immigrants got creative. Some bought forged papers or claimed family ties to people already living in the U.S. And the U.S. government responded by building a system of intense, often humiliating interrogations to try and catch them. That was the system on Angel Island.

Immigration Interrogations

Imagine arriving in a new country after weeks at sea, probably suffering from seasickness, nervous, unsure of what’s next, and immediately being pulled aside and suspiciously questioned. Not just once, but again and again. In separate rooms. For hours.

Immigrants were asked a set of detailed, and often bizarre, questions:

How many windows are in your house back home?
Which direction does your front door face?
What are your neighbors’ names?
How many ducks does your father own?

And if their answers didn’t line up perfectly with a relative’s earlier statement, they could be denied entry and deported back across the Pacific.

Families were separated. People were locked in wooden barracks, sleeping on metal bunks, staring at the same walls every day. It wasn’t unusual for Chinese immigrants to remain in detention for up to six months. One person was held for almost two years.

While Chinese immigrants were the main group detained at Angel Island, they weren’t the only ones. People came from Japan, Korea, India, the Philippines, and Russia. Some were students. Some were refugees. Others were workers or family members hoping to reunite with loved ones.

However, if you were Asian your path into the U.S. was almost always harder. Immigration laws at the time were deeply biased, and Angel Island reflected that. Even when people were finally allowed to enter, they often carried the trauma of their experience with them.

Poetic Prisoners

One of the most powerful things to see on Angel Island today are the hundreds of poems carved directly into the walls of the old detention barracks. Written in Chinese calligraphy, these poems are raw and emotional. Some are filled with sadness. Some with anger. Some with quiet hope.

Here’s one that’s haunted me ever since I saw it on a school field trip while growing up in the Bay Area:

Imprisoned in the wooden building day after day,
My freedom withheld; how can I bear to talk about it?
I look to see who is happy, but they only sit quietly.
I am anxious and depressed and cannot fall asleep.

Today, you can still read many of these poems in person, and are one of the most moving parts of visiting there.

Continuing Detentions on Angel Island

In 1940, a fire broke out in the main administration building at Angel Island Immigration Station. Rather than rebuild, the government shut it down and moved immigration operations back to San Francisco. Then came World War Two and with it a change in the relationship with China. It was now an ally of the U.S. in the war against Japan. The Chinese Exclusion Act was quietly shelved in 1943.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government ordered the mass incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans: two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens, and Angel Island played an important role in the early days of this injustice. Before large internment camps were set up inland, Japanese immigrants (mostly men) were detained on Angel Island immediately following their arrest by the FBI.

These detainees were community leaders, teachers, priests and businessmen, taken suddenly from their homes without due process. They were held here in makeshift quarters under military guard, sometimes for weeks, while the government decided their fate. For many Angel Island was the first stop on a much longer journey through the incarceration system.

During the war, the military reclaimed the island for use in other ways. It was used as a processing center for troops, and even as a Prisoner of War (POW) camp for Japanese and German captives. The island thus retaining its use as a detention center.

The need for these types of use receded quickly after the war. Then, like a lot of historic sites, the island faded from public memory. The old barracks stood abandoned for decades, until the 1970’s, when the carved poems were rediscovered.

Why the Immigration Station Still Matters

The story of Angel Island, and especially the Immigration Station, isn’t just history. It’s a mirror, that shows us what happens when fear drives policy, and when people are judged not by who they are, but on no other basis than where they come from.

At the same time, it tells a story of resilience. The people who came through Angel Island carried hope with them. Hope for something better, even when the system was set up to shut them out. Their strength and sacrifice helped shape the Bay Area we know today, and that deserves to be remembered.

So next time you’re looking for a Bay day trip, skip the more obvious options and head to Angel Island. Hike the loop. Eat your sandwich with an amazing view.

And while you’re there, listen to the stories the wind still carries. Because this little island has a lot to say.

Angel Island Today: How to Visit and What to Expect

Today, Angel Island is a California State Park, and it’s one of the most beautiful places in the Bay Area. So many visitors overlook this historic and beautiful gem in favor of Alcatraz, but if you have an extra day it is truly worth the visit.

You can hike, bike, or picnic with sweeping views of San Francisco, Marin and the Golden Gate Bridge. But make sure to visit the Angel Island Immigration Station, located on the northeast side of the island. It’s a short walk from the ferry landing at Ayala Cove and offers a guided or self-guided museum experience through the old detention barracks.

• Ferries leave from both San Francisco’s Ferry Building and Tiburon. Check Angel Island Ferry for the most up-to-date schedule.
• There’s no admission fee to the island park itself, but the Immigration Station Museum charges a small entrance fee (which is totally worth it).
• Spring and Fall are the ideal seasons to visit, with clear skies and fewer crowds.

Final Thoughts on Visiting the Island

For the best Angel Island experience here are some tips to help you plan your visit:

1. Pack snacks and water. There’s a café near the ferry dock, but food and drink options on the island are limited.
2. Wear comfortable walking shoes to take on the trails and uphill climbs. Don’t even think about visiting in flip-flops.
3. Give yourself time. The museum can be emotional and the exhibits are powerful. Allow at least an hour to see the whole facility.
4. Layer up. It’s the Bay. Which means it’s always colder and windier than you think it will be.
5. Don’t skip the poetry wall. Stand there and read it slowly. It hits the reader differently when they’re in the space where it was written.

With a little planning, a trip to Angel Island can definitely one of the highlights of your visit to San Francisco, or the highlight of the month if you live in the Bay Area.

If you have any feedback on Angel Island: SF’s Immigration Station please email us or reach out on social media, we’d love to hear from you.

– By Dara Mihaly (Instagram)