OAK ISLAND, TEXAS (Chambers County). Oak Island, between the east and west forks of the Double Bayou eight miles south of Anahuac in central Chambers County, was named for an island of oak trees near the bayou's mouth. In 1880 Joshua Harmon moved a cotton gin across the bay to the site of what is now Job Beason Park, but the community was founded in 1951 by real-estate developers Charles Troy and R. L. Hall on what was then the site of a fishing camp. In 1966 the community had 147 residents and a seasonal population of 500 to 600 tourists. The inhabitants included workers on nearby offshore drilling rigs and persons engaged in fishing, oystering, and boat manufacturing. A municipal water system was installed in 1966. Oak Island was still listed as a community in 1990. By 2000 the population was 255.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Jewel Horace Harry, A History of Chambers County (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1940; rpt., Dallas: Taylor, 1981). Margaret S. Henson and Kevin Ladd, Chambers County: A Pictorial History (Norfolk, Virginia: Donning, 1988).