Pompano Beach: A Town Named After Dinner
Near Fort Lauderdale, Florida
The first permanent settlers here were George Butler and Frank Sheen, railway workers who arrived in eighteen ninety-six when Henry Flagler's train pushed south through Dade County. Local lore holds that Sheen gave the new settlement its name while filling out a survey map, jotting down the word for the silvery game fish he had just eaten for dinner. Pompano, a prized species of the Florida inshore waters, gave this town its name.
The municipality incorporated on July third, nineteen oh eight, as the Town of Pompano, with John Mizell elected its first mayor. It spent its first decades as a farming and fishing community, then merged with its beachfront area in nineteen forty-seven to form the City of Pompano Beach. Today it is one of Broward County's largest cities, though most people still come for the fish.
