Boca Grande, Florida
Boca Grande is known for its historic downtown, sugar sand beaches, blue water and world class fishing.
Processed phosphate from the Bone Valley region was loaded onto waiting ocean-going cargo vessels via the Seaboard Air Line Railroad at the dock located on the southern tip of the island.
[citation needed] Boca Grande's serene beauty makes it a destination for high-profile weddings and residences for the elite seeking privacy.
Sara Blakely (Spanx founder and owner) and Jesse Itzler were married on Boca Grande in 2008, while the Bush family and Audrey Hepburn have called it home seasonally.
[citation needed] Hurricane Charley hit Boca Grande heavily on August 13, 2004, causing some US$20 billion worth of damage to Southwest Florida.
The fishermen, many of them Spanish or Cuban, caught large quantities of mullet and other fish and salted them down for shipment to Havana and other markets.
In 1885, phosphate rock was discovered on the banks of the Peace River just above Punta Gorda, east of Gasparilla Island across Charlotte Harbor.
Wealthy American and British sportsmen began discovering the Charlotte Harbor area for its fishing (notably for the world-class tarpon) and hunting.
By 1905 it was felt that building a railroad to Port Boca Grande and carrying the phosphate to it by rail would improve the method of shipment.
Phosphate-laden trains were off-loaded directly onto ocean-going freighters, and the ships took the valuable commodity to ports all over the world.
The oil storage tanks were subsequently removed from the 9-acre (36,000 m2) site at the southern tip of Gasparilla Island adjacent to the 120-year-old Boca Grande Lighthouse.
By 1910 Boca Grande Pass was already famous for its unequaled tarpon fishing among fishermen, who stayed on nearby Useppa Island.
The railroad station in what would become downtown was built; roads, sidewalks, streetlights, shops, a post office, and water and telephone service were not far behind.
In 1911, the first hotel, the Gasparilla Inn, opened, and the island became a major vacation destination for the elite from Tampa, Fort Myers,[1] and New England.
In 1925, the Seaboard Air Line Railroad bought the assets and property of the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway, but it took the Interstate Commerce Commission three years to approve it, and the SAL finally merged with the CH&N in 1928.
The railroad continued to bring winter visitors from all along the eastern seaboard and upper Midwest until the Boca Grande Causeway opened in 1958.
When the bridge became operational, it was faster to fly to Tampa and drive to Boca Grande than it was to take the train directly from the Northeast and Midwest.
Thanks to the generosity of Bayard and Hugh Sharp (members of the Du Pont family who had been winter residents for many years), the community purchased the old railroad bed from CSX Corp. (the successor corporation to the old Chessie and Seaboard systems) and transformed it into a new use—Boca Grande's popular Bike Path.
Boca Grande has always been a unique community, with a large number of wealthy winter residents rubbing elbows with the fishermen and railroad and port workers who formed the permanent, year-round working population.
The article detailed an event that took place on March 12, 1885, when a New Yorker named W. H. Wood landed a 93-pound (42 kg) tarpon at the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River.
