John Thompson received Avoca Island as a land bounty in 1870.
The federal government gave no bounty land for service after 1855, but Union veterans of the Civil War received special homestead rights in 1870, when an amendment to the 1862 Homestead Act gave them the right to claim 160 acres within railroad grant areas (other homesteaders got only 80).
Thompson and his family worked the land as fishers, hunters, and trappers until his death in 1915.
[2] After the discovery of oil, the African American residents of Avoca Island were kicked off by officials and their houses dozed.
Alongside oil companies, a few private hunting clubs also have interests there.