Boca de Ratones
The City of Boca Raton is named after the inlet to the sea located within its borders. The Spanish words ‘Boca de Ratón’ literally translates to ‘Mouth of the Mouse’. In Spanish maritime jargon, ‘Boca de Ratones’ indicates ‘A shallow inlet studded with sharp-pointed rocks which scrape or gnaw at a ship’s cables’.
The first inlet known as Boca de Ratones appeared on maps in the 1770’s at the north end of Biscayne Bay in what is now Miami Beach. That inlet was closed by infilling sand by the early 1820’s. Another inlet opened up further south a few years later. This inlet was called Boca Ratones by some and Norris Cut by others. The name Boca Ratones found its final and present home in an inlet fifty miles north by around 1840. The ‘es’ is dropped by the beginning of the 20th century.
The location of the inlet constantly changed with the drifting sands and sometimes it would close up altogether. A map from the 1740's named the inlet Rio Seco, or Dry River. In the late 1760's, the inlet was located in the northeast corner of Lake Boca Raton. By the 1800's, the inlet had closed at its northern location and reopened in the southeast corner of the lake. Various maps from the 1800’s showed no inlet at all in Boca Raton.
The inlet was dredged and stabilized by a pair of 400 foot jetties in the 1920’s & 30’s. The 1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane destroyed the north jetty permitting sand and silt to clog the inlet. For over twenty years, local interests and various city agencies took part-way measures to keep the inlet open, but no permanent solution was found. A storm plugged up the inlet once again during the 1966 Thanksgiving weekend. The ARVIDA Corporation repeatedly dredged the inlet in the late 1960’s & early 1970’s. The inlet and surrounding land was deeded to the city in 1972 with the stipulation that it be kept navigable. With some help from the corporation, the city bought its own hydraulic dredge which allowed it to maintain the inlet and transfer sand to the beach south of the inlet. In 1975, the jetties were extended and reinforced. With regular maintenance, the inlet has stayed open ever since but periodical shoaling does occur just past the jetties.
LOGGING REQUIREMENTS
We encourage you (not required) to take a picture of yourself and/or caching team and post it on this cache page. To log this earthcache as a find, you must email the answers to the following questions to the cache owner:
- Estimate the width of the inlet between the two jetties.
- Record the date and time of your visit. Was it an ebb tide, flood tide or slack tide?
- Do you notice any evidence of a shoal or sandbar at the mouth of the inlet?
Seal of the City of Boca Raton
Shifting location of the inlet
Inlet in the 1930's
