Subject: Day 5: Our Expedition On Angel Island California On April 25th 2016
Date: 8/2/2018
From: lordofthynight@aol.com
To: ParanormalBuffalo@yahoogroups.com, paranormalghostsociety@yahoogroups.com, ParanormalGhostSocietyConnections@yahoogroups.com,TheParanormalGhostSociety@yahoogroups.com, SupernaturalFlorida@yahoogroups.com, ParanormalCalifornia@yahoogroups.com, ParanormalNevada@yahoogroups.com, Paranormalflorida@yahoogroups.com, sierraparanormal@yahoogroups.com, PGSPhantoms@yahoogroups.com

I remember my first attempt to explore Angel Island was thwarted when someone stole my camera in the ghost town of Purisma. To make the long story short months before I visited Angel Island we were just an hour away south in a ghost town and I had sat my camera down near the ghost town site because my cooler was leaking all over the vehicle. I turned my back maybe 15 minutes came back it was gone and so without my cam I had to cancel Angel Island.
 
This time around though things would be different also it was the last leg of our Santa Cruz Adventure day 5 to be exact so we were exhausted but no less looking forward to landing on this island so we could spend the day exploring some true American Immigrant and US Military history. More then often most people probably take the ferry's on over to Alcatraz rather then Angel Island because lets face it most people like to chase a good haunt. So Angel Island does not get as much attention as it deserves and honestly I believe that this island is just as haunted as Alcatraz.
 
Angel Island is quite fascinating it has some of the richest history on the west coast ranging from a Miwok Bayside Village, Immigration Station, Detention Center, Quarantine Station, Hospital, Recruitment Station, Fort, Military Base and of course today's state park. The entire island at one time had numerous buildings and homes on it today most of it is gone but not all thus their is plenty to explore. So we would visit quite a few sites on this trek with the focus being the old military hospital or rather infirmary.
 
Due to the fact that the ferry only gives you a few hours to explore the island if you miss your ride home you will be stuck spending the night here. I am considering doing this in the future if others are willing to go with me that way we can have more time. But with the time I was given I do think we did well considering we hiked a few miles and checked out quite a few sites. You can get a pass to camp on the island over night to so again its something we may have to do. Because the island is rather large with a few miles of hiking trails and you cant see it all in one trip let alone two or three.
 
I have had my eyes on Angel Island for many years so for me this was a dream come true. Their is something awesome about traveling on a boat to some island that has dark mysterious abandoned buildings and a hospital where soldiers from the WWI and WWII perished at. So my goal of the first trip was to explore some of the prominent historic sites on the island then see what I could pick up on the EVP recorder. If I get something ghostly evidence wise it will allow me to start building a greater case in the future.
 
I felt this was also an important location that needed to be on our site. I do not care what you see on TV my paranormal organization has put places on the map before any other group and have for years. In most cases we were the first paranormal group to publicize certain locations and Angel Island may just be one of those locations. Sadly these fraudulent TV shows and cheesy paranormal groups copy us then they act like they were the ones that came up with the ideas first and that is not the case.
 
Angel Island tends to draw in tourism but it also draws in urban explorers like myself who enjoy decaying forgotten buildings and even those who might be into chasing the dearly departed. The island has a long standing tragic past people did die here their are even burial mounds. This is a sad island because what happened here in the past was tragic. Many of the immigrants that arrived here were often mistreated some even came bearing diseases that were not treatable. Family sometimes were separated and the Ellis Island Of The west was not a friendly place especially if you were Chinese.
 
Tammy, Jarrod and I were staying near the Wharf so that way in the morning we could get up early then journey on foot to the pier to catch the ferry. As a matter in fact it was a good thing since our jeep was parked at the hotel it made things easier. All we had to do was leave the Sheraton go a few blocks get a coffee then board our ferry out to the island. We had arrived a little early because we had no idea how long it would take us to purchase our tickets and that sort of thing.
 
The ferry left the port it was awesome because you could stay on the lower deck and enjoy dining at one of the tables even play a game while on the voyage. But I was to curious to sit for to long so I went on the upper two decks to enjoy the views of the San Francisco Bay. Over time you see the city getting further and further away its very fascinating how the city is so urban yet the island is so offbeat. While the city has so little of nature Angel Island is full of it. They are kind of complete opposites yet they are connected to as if you were an immigrant you had to be processed on the island before entering San Fran and the military base protected the city because this city is home to one of the busiest ports in the country.
 
We passed right by Alcatraz which I was like enough to do a paranormal investigation at about five to six years ago. It still today is one hell of a creepy island which is why it gets so much attention. But after exploring Angel Island I think that its even more eerie then Alcatraz but the islands are fairly close to one another. But I will say all the creepy mansions, hospital buildings, military barracks etc really make Angel Island more creepier then anything I have come across in the bay area.
 
I knew we were almost docking at Angel Island I seen Fort Reynolds which is a civil war base build in the mid 1800's As a matter in fact some of the buildings here are the finest Civil War structures on the west coast. Ill be up front with all of you I ran out of time on the island and never made it here. I kind of felt sad but paranormal investigations can not be rushed. Even if you miss something on the island your going to find out that no matter where you go it all is very amazing but I know ill have to go back here especially to see the Civil War Fort. The old fort buildings are very amazing even from afar I seen barracks, quarter master buildings and some very large brick building.
 
We would dock in no time when you get off there is a huge sign with a plaque that reads Angel Island. There are a few docks you get off on then you can explore the island as you wish. Its a bit touristy honestly quite a few people were on the ferry with me most people take the island trams others rent bikes to ride. I thought about renting bikes but man what they charge is pitiful nothing and I mean nothing comes cheap. Why cant people just be fair with prices if your fair ill pay if your outlandish sorry you lose me as a customer keep things fair and ill pay time and time again. So no bikes or trams for us all on foot exploring!
 
Angel Island
 
The first stop is the old quarantine station it sits on a hill plenty of trees, flowers, picnic benches, bathrooms, trail markers and plaques around. The old Bachelors Officers Quarters building is today a visitors center which has the entire downstairs open. The upstairs is dark, dingy and offlimits which is probably the haunted part of this old colonial building. I seen an old lighthouse lantern and a few other artifacts. They also had sea lion bones and some other things about nature on the island. I mean the entire island is really one giant museum but to get to see some good material on the island helps me better understand it more.
 
Behind the visitors center is some older houses they are manor or mansion like. Sitting above Ayola Cove known as Hospital Cove where the Spanish first arrived. But the homes sit in the woods not many folks know about them unless you hike one of the upper trails. There are massive concrete steps leading to some of them they are steep kind of worn out. But one of the houses had a wrap around porch another had an old garage and shed behind it. Some of them are boarded others had a car or two and are probably used by the caretakers of the state park. Each hour has two stories perhaps a basement and even an attic. I could do better work if they just allowed me access!
 
The homes are scary looking I mean lets face it they probably are haunted at one time 40 something structures stood here but now all you have left is the historic visitors center and a few homes on a hill. We enjoyed exploring a little but on our way down to the cove we saw some sea lions. They are so adorable with there little whiskers as they were watching us walk by. I mean the bay is a great place to see the seals they like to sunbathe on the docks and hell its probably safer for them too. I know they say no great whites enter the bay but do not believe that shit I have talked to kayakers who had a great white swim right under there kayak they are out there and they love seals for a snack.
 
Their was some flocks of geese also below the hill and we had to begin our journey to head out to the immigration station. The station is about a mile on foot away half of it is a steep uphill jaunt. This island has this massive mountain in the middle of it you can also stand on top of it if you have time to hike there. I knew I would not have time but as you get higher on the mountain there are more woods and nature is very abundant.
 
You also can take in views of San Francisco and the bay. On parts of the island you can see San Fran, Oakland, Tiburon and Sausalito. As a matter in fact some other places around the bay are probably tend minutes from Angel Island if you had a boat. I know one of the ferries actually leaves for Tiburon so really its up to you which ferry or where you want to board it at. In my case I left the port of San Francisco. People have houseboats and others live right on the bay. You can imagine what its like every day to wake up and see this creepy island out your windows.
 
Eventually we would begin heading to the north side of the island. Eventually after we hiked and ascended for a half mile it leveled off. We could see below a hill the old Immigration Station. Many of the structures were boarded other ones were restored. The immigration station is huge there were remnants of an old guard tower a few foundations around. The complex was not only used to process the immigrants coming on into port but at times it was a military prison also so it had more then one use.
 
There was also this white building an old house perhaps it was two stories plus an attic. Its hard to know what everything is here. It may have been a house to one of the more prominent staff members   There is this gate we seen go up and vehicle go through it back to some house. Its obvious some folks live on this island more then likely they work for the state care taking the islands structures and grounds.
 
We walked down this hill they had this table with a layout of the immigration station with small stone models it was pretty cool. They have one of the detention centers open for tours and as a museum but it cost money and I just did not have the time to deal with it. But you can visit the Wharf where there is this giant bell you can ring which my son beat me to it. The wharf is where the immigrants docked at then were processed as soon as they got off the ships and ferries.
 
There are also these tiered walls with different words on them such as fear, rejection, realities, social justice, denial, dreams, hope, human spirit, perseverance etc etc. Their are also quite a few foundations some of them were staff housing and even a central heating steam plant. I seen also the European and the Asian recreational grounds. The entire station is set up like a prison even remnants of an old water tank. The station had a bit of everything like a prison that way those that lived on site had what they needed which was shelter, water, heating etc.
 
Many of the gates, high fences and walls still stand today which was meant to keep the immigrants from escaping. Once they were processed they were free to travel anywhere in America but some simply got denied or were not allowed out of here. I guess my whole thing is I felt sadness here this was not a nice place people were not treated right especially the Chinese. I am sure abuse did occur here I mean that is human nature to mistreat others if they do not fit the norm. In this case people who came here often spent months separated from their family in a small cell and when they were allowed outside they were confined to a small yard to play soccer or whatever.
 
We eventually moved on there is about three big buildings at the station that stand most of the access is very limited. If you continue to head towards the north side of the island you will come across a big old white building with a mansion sized home that sits back in the woods. The white building has garages and I think today the state uses it to store there maintenance equipment for tools perhaps landscaping equipment. But back then it was the old firehall just in case any fires broke out on the island. But if you pay attention not far from there you will see ruins which overlook the north side of the bay. While the ruins all look very old they are part of an expansion project and the buildings were newer then many of the other buildings today found on the island.
 
These ruins are from the North Garrison which was built around WWII and actually was an expansion of Fort McDowell nearby. None of the buildings standing but it had an infirmary, guard house, post exchange, barracks, 1600 man mess hall and even a prison to detain combatants and enemies of the state. At that time the Germans and Japanese were being rounded up only to be detained due to the war. Tensions were high and the post needed a garrison that held prisoners of war. Trust me not much to see but the ruins are a tall tail sign of what was and after Pearl Harbor Angel Island had small garrisons surrounding the entire island to provide security to the bay.
 
If you go down the hill you will start making out with your eyes Fort McDowell. You will know your almost there because in the distance you will see the massive 70 room hospital and barracks in the distance. The fort/base is huge and it was quite larger before half of the buildings were torn down. But still what is left is monolithic and the hospital was originally the reason for my visit because I wanted to ghost hunt it and thought to myself how awesome it would be to get out explore that decaying building a little.
 
When I arrived at the hospital it was wide open no boards, windows or even doors. However, you cannot access the upper floors they removed all stairwells. So when you view our videos or pictures you will be very limited as to where I could take you of course. But there was many wide open rooms, dark halls including some green colored room and a few other hospital rooms for the wounded. During the war men came here to either seek treatment and simply some died. WWII was a rough war our soldiers came back missing limbs and so many of them were brought to this hospital spending months being rehabilitated. Today wandering its halls you would never even realize that what this location was is actually the bases hospital and a very large one if that.
 
Next to the hospital is the church which kind of was overgrown and locked up. I did manage to look into a open window in the back into a room. I would not recommend trying to go into places you should not their are state workers who drive around the base constantly to watch it and security just sayin. But you can walk the grounds, take photos and some buildings are wide open for the urban explorer. We had lunch between the church and courtyard of the hospital. It was a decent lunch I had my backpack on me to so we had food, drinks, snacks etc. I drank an occulto with tequila in even smoked a huge purple haze joint while touring all the abandoned sites lets just say it was a really nice relaxing time.
 
Let me mention also my son and I seen some deer behind the church. I tried to film them but failed they darted into the woods. Yes there are deer on the island some swam over from Tiburon and over 10k years ago perhaps crossed a land bridge that ran throughout the bay strange right? They have no natural predators so they are free to breed although the military began to hunt them for fun and sport. When they reduced their numbers they simply brought more in via boat. This island flourishes with nature there are flowers, variety of birds, raccoons, seals, lizards and butterflies. I felt kind of honored to see two deer on the island not everyone gets to see them.
 
Their are some huge buildings on site one was the massive mess hall which could feed over 1500 soldiers. But it was used for movies, dances, basketball etc. Not far from that building was also remnants of an old bowling alley. We also visited the general store it was of course boarded up and locked down. Their is the quartermaster building to where you could pick up supplies it once had a restaurant and you could get a fountain soda. Not far from the 1600 man barracks which once expanded is remnants of the old baseball field where today grass and nature have taken over it. The Admin building was in good shape to where soldiers were processed, discharged, picked up postal mail and pick up there pay. You could even wire money to loved ones.
 
Most of the buildings are boarded at the bottom while the second and third stories are wide open. These buildings were huge so each floor may have been 15' in height. Their was some maintenance building with some weird machine also. While I was wandering Fort McDowell we also seen quite a few ships and barges pass by I thought that was cool There is this lookout area also where you can take in some good views of San Fran. The massive barracks are four stores high with half of the 1st story built in a hillside underground.
 
If you take Perimeter road you can come across a series of classic revival homes and even dorms. The homes and dorms on the hill line the street with steps leading to everyone of them. These buildings are huge back in the day if you had a high rank in the military your family and you got to live here not in the barracks with the other soldiers. Back in the day children would be playing outdoors while wives might tend to flower gardens that sort of thing. The homes are very creepy some of them were boarded up others you could tell are currently being used by state employees. One of the windows had a fan sitting up in it and it was turned on. These were nice homes basement, two stories, attic with an upper balcony and a lower porch held up by giant columns.
 
Fort McDowell was one of the finest bases in the country most of the time it was used as a recruitment station during WWI and WWII however it was also a discharge station. After the war most soldiers came here by the thousands actually hundred thousands to be discharged. They might stay on base a month or two to heal up wounds, get there final pay, discharge papers etc. I mean when soldiers docked in the bay after the war on Mount Livermore they would have a huge lit up sign that welcomed them home.
 
The buildings are very haunting looking as you walk down this road lined with huge trees then again most of the abandoned buildings are a bit foreboding. Some of the officers homes had giant chimneys so my guess is during the winter the homes had gotten cold and you simply heated the homes with wood. At the time this was not only a base but a community sometimes the soldiers would get on the ferry take there family to San Fran to catch a play at the theater etc. The mess hall served 12k meals per day thousands of soldiers came through here perhaps some of them were your family members during WWII. They would have to because this was one of the busiest processing and discharge military bases in the nation during that time period.
 
I could continue to talk about the base but its probably better you look at our photos and watch our video we filmed on Angel Island as seeing it is far better then me talking about it. I was a bit pressed for time we had to set our alarms to make sure we left the other side of the island and made it back to our ferry in time. I did not want to get left behind but to be honest I kind of hoped I did because their just is not enough time to explore the Fort. I also found in the barracks a board missing off one of the rooms which I entered but while most buildings had boards some also had iron bars. The place is kind of like Fort Knox it was build to last a true fortress of its time.
 
We did not have much time to get back we were on the opposite end of the island and on foot it takes time to get around. You cant see everything when your ferry only gives you a few hours to explore and pretty soon it was leaving. I think we had about 22 minutes to get a mile and half back to the Hospital Cove. I was not sure we would make it but then again it was easier going downhill down to the cove then climbing higher up above the cliffs found on the island. We did actually make it just before the ferry arrived had enough time to use the restrooms maybe sit for ten minutes then all of sudden the ferry came around the bend into the cove.
 
I have to say this island has an eerie feeling to it its not a big island a couple miles to hike around it. But its heavily woodsy and the buildings are a bit creepy. You have to think hundreds of people died here plus the island was home to a giant native American village for hundreds of years. Some people died of war wounds others of disease. Then you had the immigrants who were kept like prisoners here some would write messages on the walls of there cells of hope but even of despair. I am sure some level of abuse did occur such as rapes, physical abuse, fights etc. I mean this island had a couple hospitals and prisons to. So their is plenty of negative energy that comes with the islands history.
 
When I had gotten back on the ferry I felt sad to leave I wanted to see more. I had talked to a woman on the island with her kids bike riding and she told me her and her kids were going to spend the night here. You can camp or spend the night if you get a permit something id like to do but being I have no investigators or team members its pointless to do this all by myself over night. I am all about making memories with friends and if you have no friends that are into exploring, adventuring, paranormal investigating etc it makes things really difficult. People just lack involvement and commitment which is sad because there is no place like Angel Island in the world.
 
This was an island with civil war history but also wild western history. When tensions were high out west with the Natives they base on the island was used to dispatch soldiers to certain areas of California to protect the local towns and settlers. I believe they also detained some of the Native Americans here also. Today some people call the entire island Fort McDowell and I guess you could say it was since it was our military that build up and fortified all the garrisons still found on the island today. Supposedly there is a few Nike Missile sites also on the island. I know I missed one them on my hike because I stayed mainly on the Perimeter road but their are other roads I did not take so this place definitely needs another visit from us.
 
The ferry ride was nice passing by the Golden Gate but it was only a few hours till dark and we had about a four hour ride home. It was a long journey for us we didn't just visit Angel Island we were on the road five days hiking, exploring etc. We seen redwoods, ghost towns, historic sites, aquatic life, a couple mysterious sites and finally Angel Island for the grand finale. We ended up stopping about half way home at a KFC and A&W they messed up in my order so gave me a free meal coupon next time I come in after I filed a poor review on Yelp.
 
Our Santa Cruz and San Francisco adventures were simply a success we did a great job covering multiple locations that we could put on our site for people to enjoy all over the world. Prior to this I knew very little about Angel Island and when I left there I realized that the entire island is a true historic treasure which played a role in the west coasts development. Most of the immigrants went on from here to have productive lives becoming miners, business owners and had families. Today many of the Chinese and Japanese Americans had family members who had to be processed in Angel Island the Ellis Island Of The West.
PGS Founder
Lord Rick

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