For Casey Dexter-Lee, it’s hard to put her love for Angel Island State Park into words. It’s where she met and married her husband, James, and the place she’s called home for 20 years.
Not long after graduating from the University of California at Santa Cruz, where she studied history, she started working on the island as a seasonal employee, overseeing 24-hour immersive field trips for kids while in character as Maj. George Andrews, the first commanding officer at the island’s Camp Reynolds during the Civil War.
She rose through the ranks, finding ways to tell the island’s eclectic stories, whether giving tours at its immigration station or now as a state park interpreter, helping to provide virtual, educational programming in today’s world.
For her longtime work and contributions, she was recently awarded the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation’s Spirit of Angel Island award.
Q What made you take the job on Angel Island 20 years ago?
A I had a family friend who worked for California State Parks near where I grew up, and he told my parents that parks were always looking for people. I went to my local state park, Columbia State Historic Park, and they gave me a packet of information and there was a flyer for this job on Angel Island, a place I was not familiar with, doing field trips with kids and being a cannoneer. I was a participant in a similar program when I was a kid, on a fishing boat living history-style program. I understood from a personal experience how important those types of programs are for kids.
Q What are some memorable stories you’ve heard through your work?
A A former detainee here, Tyrus Wong, grew up and became a professional artist and worked on Disney’s “Bambi.” The connections to our more modern life are very much present in the history here. He visited the park when he was 100, and, of course, a deer walks by when they are giving the tour. I talked to a man who was detained when he was 4. He remembers being questioned by the immigration authorities not in a formal entry hearing, but he remembers being drawn away from his mother by a toy frog and they started asking him questions. “What’s your dad’s name?” “What’s your dad’s job?” As an adult, he realized they were trying to see if they were telling the truth.
Q What stands out from your past two decades living and working there?
A Meeting people who have had personal connections to the site. It becomes a pilgrimage to see the place their family first came to the United States, or where their relative was detained. For me, coming here to Angel Island really helped me understand that history is the story of people. Prior to working here, history had always been something far away, something done, and when I had that realization in my 20s, it becomes a lot more interesting, because you can relate to experiences that people have had. That is what I hope to do in our work here. If you hear a compelling story of a person, that’s something you might carry with you, forever.
Q What do you hope to accomplish with your work?
A Help voices be heard, and make students have a memorable experience that helps them connect it to today, so they think critically about whatever topic we are covering: immigration, war, quarantine station history, public health — all things that are very relevant to lives today — and the natural aspects of the island and what do you have to do to protect these things. This is a really amazing place with an amazingly diverse history and one of the reasons I still work here after 20 years is that I am still learning. You could be here a lifetime and not learn it all.
