Plays Well With Others

Angel Island Tour …

Spent a little time today on a tour of Angel Island. Angel Island is a 740 acre island about a mile from San Francisco, located in the middle of the Bay. We started off early to catch the ferry boat, the only way onto the island.

The island has had several uses in the past, including being used by the indians as a fishing hole, and then the military to house soldiers and more recently as an Immigration Station, similar to Ellis Island near New York.

Today, we went to learn more about it’s use as an Immigration Station, where many Chinese were held for days, weeks and years before being released as free citizens due to a US law that kept many chinese from being able to become citizens.

Here’s a little excerpt about the island:

From 1910 to 1940, Angel Island Immigration Station, located in the middle of San Francisco Bay, was routinely the first stop for immigrants crossing the Pacific Ocean. It had been anticipated that many European immigrants would arrive directly through the Panama Canal, but World War I prevented this. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants from around the world came through this station. Japanese “picture brides” were married by proxy in their homeland and passed through with little delay due to the diplomatic influence of the Japanese government. Refugees from the Russian Revolution made their way across Siberia and emigrated from Hong Kong.

However its greatest significance is tied to the story of the estimated 175,000 Chinese Immigrants who risked everything to journey to “gam saan,” or “Gold Mountain.” In its thirty years of operation, it was for many, the “Gateway to Gold Mountain.”

It’s a tour I would really recommend for anyone, just to see some of the older buildings and how people might have lived. I’d also recommend browsing this site for actual stories from people that went through that immigration process.

The island isn’t just an old immigration station, though. Its also a state park with tons of hiking and biking trails and picnic areas, and also some areas for camping.

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