Bump Island before 1973

Before Freddy McIntire began to develop his bumper car complex in 1973, the area that would become known Bump Island was uninhabited. Throughout the island’s history, religious groups, individuals, and corporations have taken interest in the island. However, the island never saw substantial industrial development until McIntire’s project.

The pre-Columbian Era
Little is known about the island before European colonization of the Americas, although there is consensus among archeologists and historians that it was known to the Lenape (the indigenous groups of present-day Delaware, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania). Despite its close proximity to the coast, there is almost no archeological record to be found on the island from before European colonization. The most accepted explanation for why little is found on Bump Island is that the island was solely used as a field for games of pahsaheman, a sport similar to American football. The island would have likely functioned as the entire field for the game, which is played with a hundred players on each team, men versus women. Because the sport involves a great deal of tackling, it is possible that the Lenape called it "Bump Island" in their own language.

American Luddites
The first in a series of 'close calls', Bump Island avoided the first of several attempts at industrial development in 1823 when a group of Americans, in a self-proclaimed parallel movement to the English Luddites, clashed with industrialists aiming to build a coffee pot factory on the island. The coffee pot was a relatively new invention, and made obsolete the practice of chewing coffee. In what seems like a misunderstanding or departure from the English movement, the coffee pot factory was "opposed on the grounds (double meaning intended) that technological development is not the same as progress". Many members of the group argued that chewing coffee is preferred, while others argued that to chew through the bitterness is character-building, in a protestant sense.

1863 Quaker campaign
In 1963, under the direction of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, the Union Army made plans to develop the unoccupied island as a manufacturing base for artillery. The plans were opposed by Quakers in the area, who organized a campaign to oppose the base on ecological and anti-war grounds.

Pringle Report
Cyrus Pringle, conscientious objector and botanist, wrote an early ecological report on potential consequences that the island's plants and wildlife could face if the island were to see industrial and military development. Pringle had been indexing the plants and wildlife of the island in years prior and reported that there were a "remarkable" amount of bunnies. Pringle wrote that the bunnies were "so unusually gentle and docile" that little intervention should be made- he urged further study on the bunnies and their behavior instead.

Conscientious objectors
Pringle, along with several other Quakers, penned letters to President Abraham Lincoln opposing the use of undeveloped land for artillery manufacturing. President Lincoln agreed to spare the island. The response from the president's office cited "the moral integrity of the Quakers" as reason for heeding to their request, but also mentioned that "[while] the bunny report is a curiosity, I am fighting a war. Let it be known that this is not what has convinced me."

Kennedy naming proposal
In November and December of 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy was in correspondence with President Johnson following the assassination of her husband, President John F. Kennedy. Johnson wrote to her:

"'...with your approval, there is a funny little island just a hop from Avalon, New Jersey. It ought to be named Kennedy Island- there may never be another Camelot, but I'd like to offer you a chance to head up to Avalon, make a right, and find your husband there.'"The letter also contained an offer for Jacqueline Kennedy to become an American ambassador to France. Kennedy refused both offers, instead requesting that the Florida space center be renamed the John F. Kennedy space center, and the New York International Airport, commonly known as Idlewood Airport, to be renamed the John F. Kennedy International Airport.