Boca Grande is the principal village on Gasparilla Island, a barrier island off the southwest coast of Florida where Charlotte Harbor and Pine Island Sound meet the Gulf of Mexico. The island straddles the line between Charlotte and Lee counties, with the village of Boca Grande sitting within the Lee County portion. Its name — "big mouth" in Spanish — refers to the deep-water pass that has defined the place, Boca Grande Pass, one of the world's great tarpon fisheries and the source of the village's long-standing title as the "Tarpon Fishing Capital of the World." The community's modern story began with industry. In the early 1900s, a railroad built to carry phosphate to a deep-water port turned the island into a shipping hub, and it soon attracted wealthy northern visitors drawn by the legendary fishing. Barron Collier's Tarpon Inn, opened in 1908, helped cement Boca Grande's reputation as a rarefied winter resort. That era left the island with a distinctive architectural and civic fabric — a compact village, a historic downtown, and a preserved, low-density character that has largely survived the region's later development boom. Today Boca Grande is a quiet community of roughly 1,700 year-round residents that swells with seasonal homeowners. The southern tip of the island is protected as Gasparilla Island State Park, centered on the restored Port Boca Grande Lighthouse built in 1890, while the village retains a small but complete commercial core of shops and restaurants. There are no high-rises, and much of the island remains in conservation or private residential use. Access is intentionally limited: a single 2.5-mile causeway from Placida, operated by the Gasparilla Island Bridge Authority, is the only vehicular link to the mainland. Boca Grande suits buyers seeking a secluded, old-Florida island lifestyle — waterfront living, world-class fishing, and a deliberately preserved sense of place — within driving distance of Fort Myers, Punta Gorda, and Sarasota.