At 788 feet, Mt. Livermore is the highest point on Angel Island, which is the largest island in San Francisco Bay. The entire island is a California State Park. You can see Angel Island and its Mt. Livermore from much of Tiburon, Sausalito and Mill Valley, as well as from Highway 101 when approaching or exiting the Golden Gate Bridge.
So you’d think a holiday light shining atop Angel Island in December for the past 70 years would have a clear-cut historical story line. Think again. An early account dates back to the Army having a presence on Angel Island and some enlisted men, with nothing better to do. They covered a large wooden star with red, white, blue and yellow lights and placed it at the peak of what was then known as Mt. Ida, not Mt. Livermore (adding to the mystery, no one seems to know where the name Mt. Ida originated).
Another popular version dates to the 1950s and a crew of electricians being sent to Angel Island in December to deactivate the island’s Nike missile transformers. Unable to finish prior to the holidays, they went ashore after leaving a crew member behind to guard the job site. Naturally, with not much to do, the guy got lonely so he jerry-rigged a string of lights, fastened them on a pole and stuck it atop Mt. Livermore. One telling has not just a string of lights on a pole, but many strings of lights cascading down to form a Christmas tree. Whatever.
According to the Angel Island Conservancy, which was founded in 1975, island resident Bob Snyder is the man to thank for this holiday tradition. And years later George Lucas, then of Industrial Light and Magic in San Rafael, was credited for bringing both light and magic to the top of Mt. Livermore, until the hellish Angel Island fire of 2008 destroyed all of his work. However, in this well-documented happy ending, in 2009 the Angel Island Conservancy, with significant help from PG&E, installed an energy efficient solar-powered LED beam that has been shining over southern Marin ever since. Michael Dolan, the park’s maintenance supervisor is thrilled to confirm that, thanks to his team who have put in Herculean efforts to rebuild the lights, “The Angel Light will shine this year. We have checked all the batteries and the charging system and everything is functioning correctly at this time.”
Want to be part of the show? The Adopt an Angel Light allows you to honor friends and family, and help fund the work done throughout the year by the conservancy. Go to angelislandconservancy.givingfuel.com/angel-lights for more information.
