March 2004 - Society for California Archaeology

20
Articles
mess hall and kitchen. In
1966, most of the island was
Figure 3
under DPR management.
Three years later, the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers destroyed and
buried the mess hall and kitchen and by
1973 the site had been leveled. The
nine employee cottages designed by
Julia Morgan were razed in the 1970s.
During this time of destruction, the
Chinese detention barracks were spared
because Alexander Weis, a park ranger,
noted poems carved on the walls by the
detainees (Figure 5). These carvings can
be viewed by participating in the public
tour on the island and are a poignant
reminder of the despair Chinese
immigrants experienced during forced
detainment. In 1997, as a result of efforts
by the Angel Island Immigration Station
Foundation, the site was declared a
National Historic Landmark.
Methods
The most prominent remains of the
Administration Building are along the
west end of the former building and
consist of concrete retaining walls,
pathways, and exterior stem walls. The
footprint of the former building is
approximately 200 feet north/south by
100 feet east/west. The trace of the
foundation is defined by materials on the
south, east, and west sides of the lawn.
The primary purpose of the
excavation was to determine the
presence or absence of intact foundations
and cultural deposits associated with the
Administration Building and to
determine if those remains might be
integrated into the station’s interpretive
plan. It was expected that the episodic
ground disturbance from construction,
fire, destruction, and burial of structures
between 1908 and 1973 left layers of
thick rubble underground. As such, we
began our effort by using historic plans of
the foundation and the first floor to mark
the corners of the building with wooden
stakes. Dr. Lawrence Conyers of the
University of Colorado,
Denver, then conducted a
Figure 4
Ground Penetrating Radar
(GPR) survey of the building
SCA Newsletter 38(1)