IMMIGRATION STATION • 1910–1940 • 1M PROCESSED
Ellis Island welcomed; Angel Island interrogated. For 30 years, mostly Asian immigrants were detained here — some for years — carving poetry into wooden walls.
Ferry from China/Japan docks; Europeans to SF, Asians to Angel Island.
Medical pokes, eye exams. Any “defect” = deportation risk.
200+ questions: “How many steps to your village house?” Paper sons grilled for days.
2 weeks avg for Chinese, months for some. 11–30% sent back.
Detainees carved 135 classical Chinese poems into barracks walls. Ranger discovered them in 1970 before demolition.
“Imprisoned in a 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.”
— Anonymous, Wall #37
📍 Tour: Blue & Gold Fleet ferry from Pier 41. Hike Mt. Livermore (788 ft) for 360° bay view.
1940 fire closed the station; 1943 Exclusion repealed (China became WWII ally). State park since 1963. In 1997, restored barracks opened as museum — a warning that “national security” once meant racism by law.