Ghost Adventures returns with a new two-hour special, Devil Island, on Wednesday, October 4 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Discovery Channel. However, the name of the special is deceptive and misleading, especially if you’re familiar with the actual San Francisco Bay island that was sometimes referred to as the Devil’s Island, better known as the infamous Alcatraz. That’s not where the Ghost Adventures crew is headed.
Rather, they’re going to investigate Angel Island, which they’ve decided to rename Devil Island to hype up their episode. It’s near Alcatraz, but is much bigger. However, like Alcatraz, it also has an interesting history. Let’s start with exploring that first.
About Angel Island
Angel Island is home to Angel Island State Park, a California State Park that offers camping, hiking, beaches, picnic spots, and more. But before it became a nearby outdoor haven for San Francisco Bay residents looking for an urban escape, it was many other things.
According to the California Department of Parks and Recreation, indigenous people hunted and gathered on the island. When the Spanish explorers arrived, they used it as “a safe refuge and supply stop.” It was also used by the U.S. military during the Civil War and World Wars I and II. Then, in 1954, it started the transition to a California State Park, which is what it is today.
However, it has not forgotten its history, which is on full display in the U.S. Immigration Station Museum.
The island was sometimes considered the Ellis Island of the West, but as California Parks and Rec notes, the Immigration Station “was in fact quite different.” The Statue of Liberty greeted immigrants arriving at Ellis Island. They were given health screenings and processed within a few hours.
At Angel Island, “the objective was to exclude new arrivals,” most of whom came from Asia. There was nothing quick about how they were processed. They were “detained on Angel Island for as little as two weeks or as much as six months.”
During World War II, German and Japanese POWs were also held at the Immigration Station on Angel Island. So were some Japanese, German, and Italian immigrants.
It’s the island’s dark immigration history that Zak and crew will explore.
The Devil Island Special
The new season begins with the two-hour special that follows the crew as they investigate the deceptively named Angel Island across the San Francisco Bay. Once home to an immigration station with a notorious history of torture and despair, the team faces residual anger and ecstasy emanating from a demonic darkness.
Other Upcoming Episodes
Zak and crew will stick to the West Coast for other investigations this season, too. They’ll explore the paranormal activity haunting Nevada’s mystical Sutro Ghost Town. Is an old mining tunnel fueling the abandoned settlement’s ominous aura?
Then the team faces a double whammy at an isolated, former ranch off the coast of Utah’s Great Salt Lake. What will be more dangerous: the brutal winter blizzard or the aggressive unseen presence?
They also attempt to unravel a variety of mysteries in California. Can they figure out the supernatural activity haunting Scotty’s Castle in Death Valley? What about at the Orcutt Ranch in Los Angeles, or at a family residence in Northridge?
For More Info
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Have you ever been to Angel Island, or is this the first you’re learning of it?
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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I’ve never been to Angel Island. As for the ranch in Utah, I wouldn’t want to get caught in an isolated area during a blizzard!
Great point, Vera! I was thinking give me an unseen entity over a blizzard any day…but hadn’t factored in the isolated part of that equation. lol That just makes a blizzard worse!
I’m beginning to think that nasty things like to follow Bagins around. That, or they come flinging out of whatever bolt hole they lurk in when they know he’s coming because it’s fun to mess with him.
LOL Maria!
I have not heard of it but will be looking all these places up. Since I am local to them I try to check out the different locations for myself, when possible.
I was born in San Francisco. So, I have been to all those place around there. Angel Island doesn’t really carry the ominous feel that Alcatraz does, but it is eerie as is all of San Francisco. It used to be such a beautiful city, but growing up, I always felt a sense of foreboding with the constant rolling in of the fog off the Pacific every evening (except October). More often than not, it was overcast. The wind used to blow like crazy all the time. It just never felt right in that city to me as a child; like something in the reality of life was just off kilter.
I know the city like the back of my hand, so I took my wife there to show her the cites in 2011, and we both had a GREAT time! But that was just before it was allowed by the political spectrum to fall apart once and for all (such a shame for such a terrible and abominable thing to happen to such a once beautiful city; some say the most gorgeous in the United States). I don’t need a map. I was a mobile glass installer in my 20s in the city and it’s surrounding areas, so I know every street, every one way, every turn, every shortcut … all the way down the peninsula to San Jose … and even on the East Bay side.
If politicians hadn’t allowed it to fall into ruin, much like they did in Detroit, Michigan, and if the cost of living was fair and reasonable, I would spend the rest of my life there, even with the strange sense of foreboding that chronically lingers there. It’s just the way the air smells, and the way the sun hangs in the sky (when you can see it, that is). It’s the memories of roller skating through Golden Gate Park and the stunning Japanese Tea Garden my grandma used to take me to when I was four-years-old and continued to visit into my adult years. I remember her taking me to the San Francisco Zoo which was saturated with gigantic Eucalyptus trees in every direction, and their scent was phenomenal! I used to play music professionally at many of the clubs right downtown when I got older. Those memories are vivid in my mind. I miss the city a lot, or at least what it used to be in the 80s. And Angel Island was a place we would visit on occasion for something to do, but in San Fran, there was always something to do, so it was sort of a rarity.
There’s a good reason you never heard of it, Deedee. GA totally renamed the island. It’s really Angel Island in San Fran. We’re going to San Fran in Jan and have never made it over to Angel Island. Maybe we will this trip. We’re always looking for something new to do. But I guess it will depend on if the government shuts down and if it’s reopen by then. Because that would affect the park. lol BUT if you get there before me I sure hope I see it on socials so I can live vicariously through you!
San Fran is awesome, Troy. Very cool that’s where you grew up. We go about once a year. And can you believe I’ve NEVER seen the fog???!!!! Every time we go I hope this will be the trip. We have seen it change a bit, and homelessness is worse than ever, especially after 2020. There was a distinct difference pre-2020 and after. Some of our favorite areas are now decimated with closures. I have hope the city will bounce back though. This is just one of its next phases. And like you, I’d move there in a second if I could afford it. Because also like you pointed out, there’s just so much to do. And so many opportunities for getting outside. Even when the weather is bad we always find something to do and have a great time. Not to mention all the good eats!!!!
By the way, TVDB shows the Devil Island episode as being a continuation of a split season of the same season rather than the beginning of a new season. Just thought you might want to know, AND, I didn’t see that you had an article on this, but Expedition X DID get a new series of shows, and I didn’t even know it! I just happened to run across it, and they had already run their course. I’m signing back up for Discovery/Travel so I can pick up those shows. Maybe, just maybe, that executive I talked to at the Travel Channel when I was canceling my service actually listened to me and talked to someone of importance about what I had said. There are also a couple of True Crime shows that have either been renewed or just started, I noticed. Does Murder Sleep? is a new True Crime show.
3 of the the renewed True Crimes shows are the top 3 in a row trending shows in the following order:
Evil Lives Here
People Magazine Investigates
Disappeared
This one, which was renewed, is not trending.
Crime Scene Confidential
Get this:
ALL the renewed Paranormal & Unexplained shows are in the top 5 in the following order:
Expedition X
Ghost Adventures
The Dead Files (w/Cindy Kaza)
Paranormal Caught on Camera
Ancient Aliens (I don’t watch this one)
This might give them an idea about the fact that they shouldn’t be cutting their shows! They have segregated the “Relationship” shows to TLC only now.
Frankly, I don’t know what’s to become of Discovery+, Courtney. Ghost (Paranormal & Unexplained) shows are going to Travel. True Crime shows are going to ID. Romance shows are going to TLC. And Adventure & Exploration shows are going to Discovery.
Hey Troy, I don’t know what TVDB is but the info about the Devil Island episode marking the start of a new season came right from the Warner Bros Discovery folks. I never get info about Expedition X, but I did notice new episodes were airing on Max. I’m sort of surprised Discovery+ is still around. I cut my subscription when I realized I could get my favorite ID show on Max, which is one of the trending shows you mentioned: Evil Lives Here. They poured a lot into creating Discovery+ and it has (had?) tons of content so maybe that’s why they haven’t phased it out? Plus it is cheaper than Max, but I have fave HBO shows and no way am I cancelling that. It’s a bonus I can get the Travel Channel, Discovery and ID shows there now too.
Hope you enjoy the eps of Expedition X when you sign back up to get them!