Angel Island State Park was created in 1954 with approximately 36 acres, just a tiny fraction of the island’s land.
In 1775, Juan Manuel de Ayala and his crew moored in the cove that now bears his name at Angel Island. Photo by Joel Williams
By Dave Matthews
Published: December, 2008
By 1964, almost the entire island was under the management of California State Parks. Due to the incredibly rich history of the island, in a certain sense there are four completely different parks to see, each with its own identity. Here is your inside guide:
Park Number One: The Quarantine Station and Ayala Cove. In the same year that Paul Revere made his famous ride and the battles of Lexington and Concord were being fought, the first European sailed through the Golden Gate. Juan Manuel de Ayala and his crew moored in the cove that now bears his name at Angel Island. Over a century later, in the early 1890s, the Marine Hospital Service, a branch of the federal government that has evolved into the U.S. Public Health Service, needed an isolated location to construct and operate a quarantine station to protect the west coast from contagious diseases traveling with passengers on ships sailing into the San Francisco Bay. The Marine Hospital Service constructed over 40 buildings in what was then known as Hospital Cove. Today all that remains are four of the original 40 structures.
Park Number Two: Camp Reynolds. Established in September 1863, Camp Reynolds was named for one of the most beloved Generals of the Union Army and the first general to be killed at the Battle of Gettysburg. Camp Reynolds—along with Fortress Alcatraz and Fort Point—was established to protect San Francisco from invading Confederate ships in search of guns and gold. Later, the camp was used during the 1870s as a training center for soldiers fighting in the Indian Wars. Today only a fraction of the original buildings exist, and the ones that have been protected serve as a reminder of California’s sometimes-overlooked importance in the war between the states. Of the remaining facilities, the oldest structure on the island is the Bake House. Constructed in 1863, it has been restored and is used in the Living History program; the brick oven still produces loaves of fresh-baked bread!
Park Number Three: East Garrison of Ft. McDowell. In about 1900, the miscellaneous military bases on Angel Island were re-organized into one base called Fort McDowell—named for the Civil War General Irvin McDowell. The facilities we see today at East Garrison were constructed by military prisoners from Alcatraz Island between about 1909 and 1910. The garrison was a model military base with all the pleasures of home—including a bowling alley, movie theater, hamburger stand, barber shop and a Wells Fargo office. During World War II, over 100,000 soldiers were processed going to and returning from the Pacific theater of the war, and soldiers’ letters have told us the food on Angel Island was the best they had at any base. At the peak, over 5,000 soldiers would be served breakfast, lunch and dinner in one day.
Park Number Four: United States Immigration Station (USIS) and North Garrison. In the early 1900s, the U.S. Immigration Service was looking for a remote location to move from outdated facilities located on the waterfront in San Francisco. Located on the north side of Angel Island, the USIS opened in 1910 and operated until 1940, when a fire forced the closure of the site and its return to San Francisco. During the 30 years it was in operation, over one million persons were processed on Angel Island. Sadly, the purpose of the site was to enforce the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, a law that prohibited most Chinese from becoming United States Citizens.
The immigrants who passed through the site had deep and agonizing experiences, and expressed these emotions by carving poetry into the walls of the detention barracks. The site was dedicated as a National Historic Landmark in 1997.
After 1940, the military took over the area and named this site the North Garrison of Fort McDowell. Many new buildings, including barracks for soldiers and a new mess hall, were constructed in and around the former immigration station. During World War II, both German and Japanese prisoners of war were held temporally at the North Garrison facility in the same detention barracks that once housed immigrants. In fact, the first Japanese prisoner of war who was captured at Pearl Harbor was taken to Angel Island before being transferred to a permanent prison in the midwest.
