Saturday June 27, 1998
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
cost: $20 or $25 if received after (June 20)
Costs include all food, beer, wine and soft drinks for the picnic and barbecue. Come prepared for any kind of weather and wear layered clothes. Situated as it is in San Francisco Bay in close proximity to Tiburon and the Southern Marin Coast, Angel Island may be fog-cooled, windy, warm, balmy or all of those conditions in any one day.
Courtesy of California Department of Parks and Recreation.
This year, we will repeat the successful picnic party on Angel Island to wrap up the lecture year and begin the field season. Here are photos from last year's Angel Island trip: The first four are from Charlie Geraci and other 11 are from Jerry Athearn.
You may bring your own bike on the ferries, or you may rent one on the island. Mountain bike rental is $10/hr, $25/day. Tandem bikes rent for $20/hr, or $45/day. Junior bikes and child trailers are also available. All bike rental prices include a helmet.
The Cove Café on the Island provides sandwiches, soup, salad, coffee and ice cream, all at moderate prices in case you decide to stay late. For more information on Angel Island, please call (415) 435-1915, for general information recorded by the park rangers, or (415) 897-0715, for recorded concession information.
San Francisco Ferry to Angel island (Blue and Gold Fleet) (415) 705-5444, or (415) 705-5555.
Tiburon Ferry to Angel Island. (415) 435-2131 (The best deal for ferry prices.)
Oakland Ferry to Angel Island. (510) 522-3300
Alameda Ferry to Angel Island (510) 522-3300
The Cordell Explorer: Berkeley Marina to Angel Island. (925) 934-3735
In the nineteenth century a number of highly aggressive European grasses, mostly annuals, began to replace the perennial native grasses, while firewood cutters chopped down much of the oak forest on the northeast side of the island. Native trees and shrubs have now recovered and are prospering along with a wide variety of the introduced plants brought to the island by military personnel and others during the last century.
Oak, bay, madrone trees, sagebrush, chamise, manzanita, toyon, elderberry, and coyote bush are native to the island. The eucalyptus, Monterey pine, Douglas fir, Monterey cypress, black locust, Australian tea, Portuguese cork oak, and other trees and shrubs were planted by the military. Wildflowers are abundant.
Animal and bird life is wonderfully diverse; both land and seashore species can be seen. Seals and sea lions are frequently seen and heard, deer and raccoons also live on the island. Frequently seen birds include robins, scrub jays, sparrows, juncos, hummingbirds, flickers, hawks, owls, gulls, ducks, egrets, scoters and kingfishers. Blue herons, brown and white pelicans, and many other waterfowl can be seen feeding offshore or flying over the island on their way to feeding grounds in other parts of the bay. Salmon, striped bass, and other game fish migrate between the ocean and the Sacramento River through Raccoon Strait on the north side of the island.
The island is notable, also, for the animals not found there. There are no squirrels, rabbits, foxes, skunks, opossums or coyotes.
Bicycles may be used on the island-circling system of main roads. Foot trails and the road to Mount Livermore are closed to bicycles for safety and resource protection. A concessionaire operates a snack bar and limited bus service during the summer.
The Miwok Indians established camps at what we now know as Ayala Cove, Camp Reynolds, Fort McDowell, and the Immigration Station. Expert at fishing, they also hunted deer, seals, sea lions, and sea otters. Several kinds of fish and shellfish were available year-round, and salmon and other highly prized fish were seasonally plentiful. The annual spawning runs were made through Raccoon Strait, just north of the island. The Indians also hunted ducks and other water fowl, and gathered acorns, buckeyes and other seed crops, as well as certain roots and leaves in order to round out their varied diet.
In the early years of the nineteenth century the island was probably uninhabited. The Indians had all been drawn into the Mission San Francisco de Asis (Mission Dolores in San Francisco), or driven out of the region. After 1808, Russian sea-otter hunting expeditions visited the island and established a storehouse there. In 1814 the British 16-gun sloop-of-war, the HMS Raccoon, was damaged off the coast of northern California, but reached San Francisco Bay and was repaired on the beach at Ayala Cove. Today the deep-water channel between Tiburon and Angel Island is named Raccoon Strait, in honor of the old British sailing ship.
In 1837, Antonio Maria Osio petitioned California Governor General Vallejo for Angel Island for use as a cattle ranch. The governor approved Osio's grant in 1839 with the proviso that some of the island be retained for harbor defense. Osio kept up to 500 cattle on the island and built several houses for the use of his herders though he himself never lived on the island.
As years passed, use of the quarantine station diminished. Better medical examinations were made at ports of embarkation, and improved medical practices made lengthy quarantines unnecessary. Isolated from the mainland, the island station was inconvenient and expensive to maintain. It was abandoned when the U.S. Public Health Service, moved its headquarters to San Francisco. Most of the quarantine buildings were torn down in the late 1950s after Ayala Cove area became a State Park. Those remaining include the former bachelor officers' quarters (now a park museum) and several State-Park employee residences.
This new facility was modern and ideal for its time, with a pier, regular boat service to the mainland, and numerous buildings to house and care for detainees. During the next 30 years this was the point of entry for most of the approximately 175,000 Chinese immigrants who came to the U.S. Most of them spent from two weeks to several months in detention here. Interrogations could take a long time to complete, especially if witnesses for the detainees lived in the eastern United States. Meanwhile the detainees waited, hoping for a favorable response to their appeals, constantly fearing deportation. Some expressed their feelings in poetry that they carved into the walls of their cubicles. Many of the poems carved into the walls of the center are still legible today.
In November, 1940, the last group of aliens was transferred to San Francisco after fire destroyed the Administration building and the government decided to abandon the Immigration Station. The so-called "Chinese Exclusion Acts" of the 1880's were repealed in 1943, as China had become an ally in World War II.
Today, visitors find the Immigration Station the most interesting aspect of Angel Island. The history of this Immigration Station was quite different from that of Ellis Island. Arrivals at Ellis Island were welcomed to this country, and screened primarily for medical reasons, whereas at Angel Island the objective was to exclude the new arrivals. A museum has been established in the old barracks building. It includes a re-creation of one of the dormitories and features some of the poems carved into the station's walls.
In 1899 a second quarantine station was built at Fort McDowell to isolate troops exposed to contagious diseases while in service in the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection. In 1900 the army designated the entire island as Fort McDowell, and renamed all the installations with geographic designations. Today, however, the staff and visitors generally use the descriptive rather than geographic names. The new facility grew quickly from a quarantine station to a discharge depot, and by 1905, some 87,000 men had passed through it to and from the Pacific.
As troops began to return home, a 60-foot high illuminated "Welcome Home, Well Done" sign was erected on the south-facing slope of the island. The rush continued into 1946 and then the use of the island tapered off rapidly. In July of that year the army decided to close down Fort McDowell, and declared the entire island surplus property.
Dr. Arthur B. Ford, this month's speaker, recounted tales of his many trips to Antarctica between 1957 and his retirement from the USGS a few years ago. He also told of his subsequent career as a lecturer aboard cruise ships whose itineraries involve primarily the islands in the Antarctic region and Antarctica itself. Art, a geologist, became involved in Antarctica in 1957 at the time of the International Geophysical Year. Art graphically described many of the physical aspects of this great continent. He also recounted the political maneuverings of the many national Antarctic presences which had as their primary interest the exploration for valuable minerals and ores. The Antarctic Treaty of 1959, which was finally signed and went into effect in 1961 (very expeditious for such treaties), provided that the Continent would be held solely for scientific research and some visitations, in perpetuity.
Fortunately for Antarctica, and for global peace, the Antarctic Ice Shield, which is as deep as 15,000 feet in some places, acts as an effective barrier to exploration and mining. The one resource in abundance in Antarctica is coal, in very thick deposits, albeit almost unreachable. This attests, however to the fact that the prehistoric Gondwanaland, to which the southern extremities of South America, Africa and Australia were attached, was at one time a warm and almost tropical continent. Scientists have conjectured that the poles, which are actually moving, were far from this area in those times.
The Madrid Accord, finally signed by the Antarctic Nations in 1991, extends the guarantees of the preservation of Antarctica in all of its aspects, even to the extent of limiting tourist travel there. Now all man-made materials must be removed. All wastes, even non-native animals, must be removed. For this reason, dogs, once the travel mechanism for Antarctica, are no longer permitted, and the far more effective and efficient snowmobiles have taken over their chores.
So, what is Antarctica good for? Art holds that its scenery, though alien to most of us, is incomparable. Volcanic activity is found everywhere. Mt. Erebus, at the South Pole, is an active volcano. In 1979, a spectacular eruption occurred on Deception Island. More than scenery and volcanic activity, the Emperor Penguins on the Antarctic Peninsula and the closely related King Penguins on South Georgia Island are unique and spectacular and everywhere occur wandering Albatross, fur seals, blue-eyed shags, skuas.
In 1996, over 7,000 tourists arrived at Antarctica by cruise ship and private boat or ship, and in 1997, the figure topped 10,000. Art's accompanying maps and photos imparted particularly to those who have never experienced Antarctica, a remarkable feel for the topography, the sense of cold, the fortitude of those early adventurers who led the way, and even of those modern visitors who are able to live there for weeks, months or years on end. Art's talk inspired many questions and considerable formal and informal discussion afterward.
Oh, very well; this one didn't come from Angel Island. But it did come from Jerry Athearn. THE 1998 GOLDEN GATEAWAY Have you sent in your reservation yet for the Golden GateAway, scheduled for October 16 and 17, 1998? Bob and Martha Schmieder, spearheading the GateAway again this year, report that already the event is "in the black," So don't delay. The Gala Dinner on Saturday evening will sell out early. Plans are well underway. The guest speakers are confirmed and many members, even from as far away as New York, have already reserved places or whole tables. If you plan to wait until October to make your decision to attend you may be disappointed, either by your seat assignment, or by not being able to attend at all.
We encourage you to submit your reservation NOW. We can no longer say "early," as that time has already past. If you need information and a reservation form, please telephone (925) 934-3735. Further publicity on this event will be mailed to you during the summer.
Tom Hall, MN-97, reports he and Liz have recently returned from a flying expedition during which they did a photographic survey of much of the Canyonlands area of Utah and Arizona.
The indefatigable Eve Iversen, CO-86 went to see a man about a camel. She reports she has recently returned from the Arab Emirates, where she was doing consulting work on the use of camels as beasts of burden. It seems remarkable that even at this stage of their civilization, the Arabs are able to learn something about the care and use of their ubiquitous travel accessory, the camel.
Present at the May meeting as guests of Keith Kvendvolden, FN-80, and his wife Mary Ann, were famous cartographer Tau Rho Alpha and his wife, Ann Alpha. Tau had actually developed the unique oblique topographic map of Antarctica displayed at the meeting by Art Ford, which demonstrated the topography of the underlying land as though there were no ice or water covering it.
"Dear Bob:
"I think you owe me! ...Re the question of what's the closest land mass to 180 degrees, though, I named Canton Island. Now, checking the National Geographic Atlas I find that Canton Island is now spelled Kanton Island. It is a part of the FORMER Gilbert and Ellice Island Colony (Br.) which became an independent republic in 1979. Now renamed the Republic of Kiribati, The group is comprised of 33 atolls and one island scattered over five million square kilometers of the Pacific.
"Though it is difficult to be sure of this, it does appear that Kanton Island is nearest to 180 degrees... Actually the U.S. Islands, Baker and Howland, may be closer, but they are completely depleted of resources and are now unoccupied, and are wildlife refuges. But I believe Kanton is a more precise guess than the generic "Gilbert and Ellis Islands"! What do you say? If I'm correct, perhaps the outgoing Secretary will give me a line in the next Newsletter.
-"Louise Geraci"
Bob agreed that Louise won a book
(Louise spent a week on Kanton in 1952. Unique among flight attendants for having to layover there, she has slides of deep-sea fishing (the sharks were mean!).
Jerry Athearn
Please reserve spaces for the Angel Island picnic on Angel Island on Saturday, May 29, 1998.
$20/person... $25 if postmarked after June 20.
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Date created: 06/04/1998Coupon for the June, 1998 Northern California picnic
Please Return By June 17, 1998 To:
7037 Chabot Road
Oakland, CA 94618
Jerry's phone: (510) 653-2572
Last modified: 06/21/2015
Content from Charlie (Chapter Secretary) and Louise Geraci.
email to Charlie and Louise
Web page by: Mike Diggles, Webmaster, Northern California Chapter of the Explorers Club. email Mike
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