Vault #3: Remembering Baldy
The Beloved Pet of Superintendent Michel DeLaune
Baldy is the only pet known to have lived at the Immigration Station. His final resting place is located off an overgrown path on Angel Island. Photo credit: AIISF, 2022.
Although pets are not permitted on Angel Island today, dogs once lived at and around the Immigration Station site. The first mention of dogs on the island appears in a 1924 letter from Immigration Commissioner Edward Haff to the commanding officer of Fort McDowell.
“I have to call to your attention a growing practice of certain members of the U.S. Army stationed on this island permitting their dogs to run loose, and which dogs eventually their way to the immigration station reservation and while here become more or less a nuisance; furthermore there are quite a number of children living on the reservation whose parents are afraid to permit them out of doors for fear that they will be bitten by the dogs. It has furthermore been noticed that the dogs have caused considerable damage to the lawns and plants surrounding the administration building.”
Despite Commissioner Haff calling dogs “a nuisance,” photo evidence shows that allowed at least one to live at Immigration Station.
According to a 2001 interview with Philip and Bernice Garcia (children of the site’s laundryman), an employee named Michel DeLaune permitted them to walk his Spanish water dog. Although they couldn’t remember its name, the Garcias submitted photographs showing them playing with DeLaune’s beloved pet on Angel Island.
Another child living at the Immigration Station, Frances Zimmer (the daughter of customs agent Julia Zimmer), photographed DeLaune and his dog in 1926. The photo has the name “BALDY” written on the front, finally confirming who was buried near the hospital.
Baldy and Michel DeLaune outside the hospital, 1926. Photo credit: Monica Pagani, granddaughter of Frances Zimmer.
Baldy’s owner, Michel DeLaune, appears in several historic photographs of Angel Island. According to census records from 1920, 1930, and 1940, DeLaune had a bedroom on the hospital’s first floor. During the twenty years he worked for the Public Health Service, his title changed from pharmacist to steward to hospital superintendent.
Much of what we know about Michel DeLaune comes from Frances Zimmer. She described him as a federal interpreter who was always friendly toward the children living on Angel Island. He helped them with schoolwork and sometimes took them to San Francisco’s cultural events. DeLaune passed away in 1941, a year after the Immigration Station closed, at 66 years old.
Where Baldy came from and what ultimately happened to him remains unknown. However, we can ascertain from his marker’s bronze nameplate and the grave’s scenic placement that DeLaune loved Baldy and wanted him to be remembered.
NARA, San Bruno. Commissioner Edward L. Haff to Commanding officer, Ft. McDowell, Cal. File No. 12030/24. Record Group 85, General Correspondence, December 9, 1924.
AIISF. Interview with Philip and Bernice Garcia, 2001.
AIISF. Correspondence with Monica Pagani, granddaughter of Frances Zimmer, 2014.