Answers to the Ellis Island Treasure Hunt

by Alexander Washburn

  1. 1892 - 1924
  2. Their worldly possessions in wicker baskets, trunks, and bundles.
  3. Yes, but sometimes they had to wait on the ships in the harbor for a couple of days.
  4. When they climbed the stairs to the Registry Room for a six second examination, the immigrants were told to take off their hats and unbotton their collars to check for tumors. They also looked for heavy breathing.
  5. It was OK if they could not read English.
  6. Most immigrants stayed on Ellis Island for 3-5 hours. The others who needed more testing had to stay longer and some were sent back. They ate spaghetti and stew. They tried to feed the immigrants food from their country. They slept in dormitories on steel bunks. Immigrants waited in the Registry Room on wooden benches before seeing the inspectors.
  7. The "Staircase of Separation" was a stairway that took the immigrants to their next place. The stairs on the right side went to the railroad ticket office; the central stairs went to the detention rooms, and the stairs on the left side went to the New York ferry.
  8. The immigrants arrived at Ellis Island with hope that they would be let into America. They wanted a chance to live a better life. They were scared because there were so many different people and different languages and they did not know what they would do in America.
    • The immigrants were given free health care.
    • 2% of the immigrants were sent back to where they came from.
    • The building on Ellis Island was called the "Tower of Babel" because there were so many different sounds and languages being spoken there.
    • In 1854 Ellis Island was a fort called Fort Gibson.
    • In 1921 the first "quota" was established to limit how many immigrants from each country could come to America.

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