Boca Grande is a small residential community on Gasparilla Island, southwest
Florida. Gasparilla Island is a part of both Charlotte
and Lee
Counties, while the actual village of Boca Grande, which is home to many seasonal and year-round residents,
is entirely in the Lee County
portion of the island.
Its name - Spanish for "Big Mouth" - comes from the mouth of the waterway, called Boca Grande Pass, at
the southern tip of the island. The pass was used as a busy shipping point for many years as the waters
in the pass are naturally deep. Processed phosphate from the Bone Valley region would be loaded onto
waiting cargo vessels via. The Seaboard Air Line Railway at the dock located on the southern tip of the
island. Shipping business to the island declined when the Port of Tampa
was later dredged and phosphate shipping operations moved north to locations along Tampa Bay. Evidence of the
island's industrial past can still be seen.
Space is at a premium in the village of Boca Grande, so many local residents use a golf cart as their
main mode of transportation. On any given day in Boca Grande, you will see golf carts, as well as
automobiles, making their way throughout downtown. A Lee County
ordinance designates all but two streets as golf cart paths. Boca Grande also provided the backdrop for
Denzel Washington's movie,
Out of Time, where the quiet village was re-named
'Banyan Key' in reference to the banyan trees that populate the island. Scenes for the 2006 film based on
Carl Hiaasen's book
Hoot were also filmed on the island.
Boca is very popular with affluent holiday makers, many of whom keep a second home on the island. The
sleepy community sometimes hosts members of Former Governor Jeb Bush and President George W. Bush's family,
who occasionally spend the week between Christmas and New Year's on the island.
