Angel Island attraction ready for its close-up
By: Katie Worth
Examiner Staff Writer
December 9, 2008
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The U.S. Immigration Station would have been demolished had a park ranger not discovered poems carved into its walls. (Courtesy photo)
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SAN FRANCISCO — It’s been 71 years since Dale Ching first set foot on Angel Island, but he still recalls the bewilderment and horror he felt as a 16-year-old immigrant from China. Expecting his journey across the Pacific to conclude with a joyous reunion with his father, he was instead met by armed guards and barbed-wire fences.
Today, he’ll return to the island. This time, however, he will be an honored guest. He’ll also be one of the first people to tour the U.S. Immigration Station — where he was detained in 1937 — to see the first completed phase of a $65 million restoration project that could turn the relic into a major tourist stop and bring international attention to the attraction.
Known as the “Ellis Island of the West,” the station has been closed for three years for the renovation. In October, state park officials feared investments made in the historic barracks would literally go up in flames during a wildfire that burned about half the island. The buildings, however, were defended by firefighters and left untouched by the blaze.
Historians believe the island was used to imprison some 175,000 Chinese immigrants, plus tens of thousands of Japanese and Russian immigrants, between 1910 and 1940, while officials considered their applications to join their families in the United States. Most of the immigrants stayed on the island for their first two to three weeks in America, while others were held there for up to two years.
Although the station was slated for demolition, a park ranger in 1970 discovered hundreds of poems in Chinese lettering carved into the walls.
As a result, the buildings — in dire need of restoration — were spared.
In 2000, state voters approved a ballot measure that dedicated $15 million to restore the U.S. Immigration Station; an additional $15 million of federal funds has also been dedicated to the project for future phases, Angel Island State Park Ranger Dave Matthews said.
The renovation has opened up parts of the site that have never before been available to the public, including the second floor of the detention center and the administration building.
Eddie Wong, executive director of the Immigration Station Foundation, said visitors will now be allowed to follow, step by step, the experience of the immigrants — from being processed to being interrogated to being sent to the barracks.
Those steps are still vivid in the mind of Ching, who recalled the afternoon he was allowed to leave the island.
“I was running all over the place, saying goodbye to my friends, everyone cheered for me,” he said. “I was one of the lucky ones, I was only there 3½ months.”
Parts of Angel Island are still closed due to October’s fire, but should be open by mid-January, Matthews said. The immigration station will officially reopen to the public in February.
