Welcome to BOCA RATON

Boca Raton is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida incorporated in May, 1925. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 74,764; the 2006 population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 86,396. However, the majority of the people under the postal address of Boca Raton, about 200,000 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.

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

Attractions

Amusement park

Amusement park or theme park is the generic term for a collection of rides and other entertainment attractions assembled for the purpose of entertaining a large group of people. An amusement park is more elaborate than a simple city park or playground, usually providing attractions meant to cater to children, teenagers, and adults. A theme park is a type of amusement park which has been built around one or more themes, such as an American West theme, or Atlantis. Today, the terms amusement parks and theme parks are often used interchangeably.

Amusement parks evolved in Europe from fairs and pleasure gardens which were created for people’s recreation. The oldest amusement park of the world (opened 1583) is Bakken, at Klampenborg, north of Copenhagen, Denmark. In the United States, world's fairs and expositions were another influence on development of the amusement park industry.

Most amusement parks have a fixed location, as compared to traveling funfairs and carnivals. These temporary types of amusement parks, are usually present for a few days or weeks per year, such as funfairs in the United Kingdom, and carnivals (temporarily set up in a vacant lot or parking lots) and fairs (temporarily operated in a fair ground) in the United States. The temporary nature of these fairs helps to convey the feeling that people are in a different place or time.

Often a theme park will have various 'lands' (sections) of the park devoted to telling a particular story. Non-theme amusement park rides will usually have little in terms of theming or additional design elements while in a theme park all the rides go all with the theme of the park, for example Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World.

Africa U.S.A. Park

Africa USA was an African wildlife tourist attraction that was open from 1953 until 1961. The park was located in Boca Raton, Florida on 300 acres (1.2 km2) of land near U.S. 1. Africa USA was truly a theme park before its time, with animals allowed to roam free. Even though Disney's Animal Kingdom in Walt Disney World was hailed as a new concept, the idea had existed some 45 years prior in South Florida. Walt Disney was a frequent visitor to Africa USA and considered purchasing it. In fact, Africa USA was chosen over Disneyland to grace the cover of the August 1, 1960 issue of LIFE Magazine.