Thursday, September 10, 2026

Question: From 1910 to 1940, Angel Island in San Francisco Bay was home to a facility that processed roughly a million new arrivals. What nickname did it earn as a result?

Answer: The Ellis Island of the West. Angel Island was a major immigration station on the U.S. West Coast, but unlike its New York counterpart, it detained many Asian immigrants, especially Chinese arrivals affected by the Chinese Exclusion Act, often for weeks or months. The station closed in 1940 after a fire, and the site later became part of Angel Island State Park.