What is the history of Boca Raton, Florida?
Listed on early maps as “Boca Ratones,” many people wrongly assume the name is simply translated to “Rat’s Mouth.” The Spanish languageSpanish word boca (or mouth) was often used to describe an inlet, while raton (literally mouse) was used by Spanish peopleSpanish sailors to describe rocks that gnawed at a ship’s cable, or as a term for a cowardly thief. The name Boca Ratones originally appeared on eighteenth century maps associated with an inlet in the Biscayne Bay area of Miami, FloridaMiami. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the term was mistakenly moved north on most maps and applied to Lake Boca Raton, whose inlet was closed at the time. The local pronunciation for “Raton” resembles the Spanish pronunciation; “Boca Raton” rhymes with “tone” and “alone” (not with “baton”). The city’s early history was as the site of Addison Mizner’s Boca Raton Hotel. The “pink hotel” today is visible from miles away as a towering building on the Intracoastal Waterway. The Pearl City (Boca
