Boca Raton ('b?k?T r?T-t?n') is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida incorporated in May 1925. As of the United States Census 2000, the city had a total population of 74,764; the 2006 population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 86,396. Census] However, the majority of the people under the postal address of Boca Raton, about 200,000 Boca Raton Historical Society: Boca Raton's History] in total, are not actual residents of municipal Boca Raton. This is due to the county's stringent annexation laws passed in 2004. It is estimated that on any given day, there are roughly 350,000 people in the city itself. City newletter]

By population...

Boca Raton ('b?k?T r?T-t?n') is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida incorporated in May 1925. As of the United States Census 2000, the city had a total population of 74,764; the 2006 population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 86,396. Census] However, the majority of the people under the postal address of Boca Raton, about 200,000 Boca Raton Historical Society: Boca Raton's History] in total, are not actual residents of municipal Boca Raton. This is due to the county's stringent annexation laws passed in 2004. It is estimated that on any given day, there are roughly 350,000 people in the city itself. City newletter]

By population and land mass, Boca Raton is the largest city between West Palm Beach, Florida and Pompano Beach, Florida, Broward County, Florida.

History
Listed on early maps as'Boca Ratones,'many people assume the name is simply translated to'Rat's Mouth'. The Spanish language word boca (or mouth) was often used to describe an inlet, while rat??n (literally mouse) was used by Spanish people sailors to describe rocks that gnawed at a ship's cable, or as a term for a cowardly thief. A.Word.A.Day Archives--disembogue] - retrieved July 14, 2006 The name Boca Ratones originally appeared on eighteenth century maps associated with an inlet in the Biscayne Bay area of Miami, Florida. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the term was mistakenly moved north to its current location on most maps and applied to Lake Boca Raton, whose inlet was closed at the time.

= Land boom =

The city's early history during the Florida land boom of the 1920s was as the site of Addison Mizner's Boca Raton Resort - Club in 1927. Referred to as the'pink hotel,'it is visible from miles away as a towering building on the Intracoastal Waterway. Following its construction, the Pearl City (Boca Raton) neighborhood of Boca Raton was established to house the service personnel for the hotel.

= War =

Japanese people farmers of the Yamato Colony, Florida converted the land west of the city into pineapple plantations beginning in 1904. During World War II, much of their land was confiscated and used as the site of the Boca Raton Army Air Force Base, a major training facility for B-29 bomber crews. There was also a radar school and research facility there. Much of the airbase was later donated to become the grounds of Florida Atlantic University, many of whose parking lots are former runways of the airbase, while part of the airbase is now used as the Boca Raton Airport. The Japanese heritage of the Yamato Colony survives in the name of Yamato Road (NW 51st Street) just north of the airport and at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens northwest of the city.