Abandoned Towns

Former town · nothing left · Palm Beach County, Florida

Yamato Colony

A Japanese farming colony of the early 1900s in what is now Boca Raton, remembered by a road name and by a museum a few miles west.

26°24′35″N 80°05′07″W
Nothing left

Nothing is left of the Yamato Colony. The Army took the last colonists' land in 1942 for an air training base, now Florida Atlantic University and the Boca Raton Airport, and NBC Miami reported on May 20, 2025 that the colony survives most visibly in a road sign: Yamato Road.

The label

Why Yamato Colony is called a ghost town

Yamato is on the lists because it was a real settlement that disappeared. It had a depot, a post office named Yamato, a schoolhouse and stores, and then its people left. Wikipedia's list of ghost towns in Florida includes it, and a long-running ghost town directory lists it with no one living there and the townsite turned into a business park. The label fits the history. It doesn't fit the ground: there is no ruin to visit.

History

Yamato Colony then

Jo Sakai, a graduate of New York University, first saw the site at Boca Raton on Christmas Day, 1903. With the backing of Henry Flagler's Model Land Company, he recruited settlers in Japan, many from his hometown of Miyazu, and in the summer of 1905 about fifteen men settled a 40-acre tract west of the railroad. They called it Yamato, an old poetic name for Japan.

The colonists grew pineapples, and in the 1907 to 1908 season they shipped 10,000 crates of them from 43 acres, along with 20,000 crates of tomatoes. Blight and cheaper Cuban fruit ended the pineapple trade, and the farmers turned to winter vegetables. The railroad built a depot in 1906 and the post office took the Yamato name. At its height the colony had 17 families, by the Morikami Museum's count; Wikipedia says as many as 75 Japanese men lived there at the peak. Their farms were small and scattered over several square miles.

Many settlers sold out in the land boom of the 1920s and left. Sakai died in 1923. When the war came, only two families and four other colonists remained. In 1942 the federal government took 5,820 acres for the Boca Raton Army Air Field (the Morikami Museum says over 6,000), including 296 acres of Japanese-owned land, and the Kamiya and Kobayashi families had to leave their homes. The air field later became Florida Atlantic University and the Boca Raton Airport.

George Morikami, who came in 1906, stayed. He farmed in Delray Beach for decades and in 1974 gave his land, nearly 200 acres, to Palm Beach County. It became the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens.

1903. Jo Sakai visits the site at Boca Raton on Christmas Day.

1904. Under contract with James Ingraham of the Model Land Company, Sakai sails for Japan in February to recruit settlers.

1905. About fifteen men settle the 40-acre Yamato tract west of the Florida East Coast Railway.

1906. The railroad builds a Yamato depot on Dixie Highway, and George Morikami arrives on May 4. Around then the local post office, until now Wyman, takes the name Yamato.

1907 to 1908. Yamato farmers ship 10,000 crates of pineapples and 20,000 crates of tomatoes.

1923. Jo Sakai dies.

1920s. Most settlers sell their land in the Florida land boom and leave.

1942. In May the government takes the land for the Boca Raton Army Air Field; the last colony families are moved out.

1974. George Morikami gives his Delray Beach land to Palm Beach County.

1976. Morikami dies on February 29.

Today

What is there now

The original Morikami Museum building beside the lake in the Morikami gardens, June 2006
The original Morikami Museum building beside the lake in the Morikami gardens, June 2006 · Photo: Fragments at en.wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

The colony's ground is now Boca Raton: Florida Atlantic University, the Boca Raton Airport, office parks and houses on both sides of I-95. The Boca Raton Historical Society wrote in 1985 that Yamato Road was the only visible reminder of the colony in the city, and NBC Miami said much the same in May 2025. The USGS place-name point sits beside the Yamato Scrub Natural Area, 217 acres of Florida scrub at 701 Clint Moore Road that Palm Beach County keeps open from sunrise to sunset every day, with a 2.8-mile sandy trail and a 0.7-mile paved one. It is a nature preserve, not a colony site, but it is the closest thing to open land you can walk at the point.

The 1950 Delray Beach sheet below prints Yamato beside the railroad, with a few buildings where a road crosses the tracks. By 1962 the name sits farther west, beside a highway marked under construction, with a golf course to the south and the Boca Harbour subdivision to the east. The 1981 sheet shows the area built up.

To learn the story, go to the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens at 4000 Morikami Park Road, Delray Beach, about 4.6 miles west-northwest of the point in a straight line. The museum's own pages tell the colony's history family by family, and its original building, the Yamato-kan, holds exhibits on the colony. The museum lists hours of 10 am to 5 pm, Tuesday through Sunday, closed Mondays and major holidays; adult admission is $18 (read October 29, 2026).

Historic maps

Yamato Colony on USGS maps, 1950–1981

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the map point. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Yamato Colony, 1950
Delray Beach sheet, 1950, 1:24,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

The point is in north Boca Raton, west of Dixie Highway between Yamato Road and Clint Moore Road. I-95 exit 48B leads to Yamato Road. Expect a city street, not a townsite.

USGS topographic map of north Boca Raton around Yamato Road and I-95, with routes drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL). Times assume dry roads.

From central Boca Raton3.6 miabout 7 min
  1. From central Boca Raton, take I-95 north.1.2 mi
  2. Leave at exit 48B.0.5 mi
  3. Turn right on Yamato Road (SR 794).0.5 mi
  4. Turn left on NW Boca Raton Boulevard.1.1 mi
  5. At the roundabout, take NW 67th Street to the point.0.2 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and visiting notes

  • All city streets. There is nothing of the colony to see at the point; the Morikami Museum, about 4.6 miles west-northwest in Delray Beach as the crow flies, holds its story.
  • Yamato Scrub Natural Area, 701 Clint Moore Road, is open sunrise to sunset (Palm Beach County).

Photos

Yamato Colony in photos

Questions

Common questions

Is the Yamato Colony a ghost town?

It was a real settlement that emptied, so it appears on ghost town lists. Nothing of it survives: the land is now Florida Atlantic University, the Boca Raton Airport and the built-up north end of Boca Raton.

Where was the Yamato Colony?

In what is now north Boca Raton, west of the Florida East Coast Railway near today's Yamato Road. The depot stood on Dixie Highway just north of Yamato Road.

Where can I learn about the Yamato Colony?

At the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach, on land given by George Morikami, one of the few colonists who stayed in the area.

Nearby

Ghost towns and sites near Yamato Colony

Straight-line distance to other mapped sites in our Florida index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Yamato Colony, Florida", read October 29, 2026: the Model Land Company, the 1903 referral, the pineapple blight of 1908 and Cuban competition, up to 75 Japanese men at the peak, the 1942 air base, now FAU and the airport, George Morikami.
  2. Wikipedia, "List of ghost towns in Florida", read October 29, 2026: Yamato Colony listed, with coordinates 26°24.6'N 80°5.4'W.
  3. ghosttowns.com, Yamato Colony: no residents, the townsite a business park near Yamato Road, the railroad and US 1, no remains.
  4. Tom Gregersen, "Yamato Colony," Boca Raton Historical Society, read October 29, 2026: the 1905 settlement on 40 acres west of the FEC, the 1903 visit, the 1904 contract, the 1906 depot and the post office renamed from Wyman, the 1907 to 1908 shipments, the land boom, the 1942 taking of 5,820 acres and 296 Japanese-owned acres.
  5. Geoffrey Lynfield, "Yamato and Morikami," The Spanish River Papers, Boca Raton Historical Society, Spring 1985: Yamato Road as "the only visible reminder today" of the colony.
  6. Constance Jones and Cassidy Hidalgo, "Yamato Road: How Japanese pioneers made their home in what is now Boca Raton," NBC Miami, May 20, 2025: the colony's story surviving in museums, family archives and, most visibly, a road sign.
  7. Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, "Yamato Colony", read October 29, 2026: Sakai and Miyazu, Christmas Day 1903, 17 families at the height, Morikami's arrival on May 4, 1906, Sakai's death in 1923, two families and four individuals left by the war, the 1974 gift of nearly 200 acres, Morikami's death on February 29, 1976, over 6,000 acres taken for the base. The museum's About page (the Yamato-kan and its colony exhibits, the land taken in May 1942) and Hours & Admission page, read October 29, 2026: hours and admission.
  8. Palm Beach County ERM, Yamato Scrub, read October 29, 2026: 701 Clint Moore Road, open sunrise to sunset, 217 acres, the trails.
  9. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits