The World’s Smallest Park
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Mill Ends Park sits in the middle of a busy four-lane street in downtown Portland, Oregon. Plants such as marigolds, geraniums, and lilies grow in the rich soil of the two-foot-wide circle. Drivers waiting for the traffic light to change may not know the story of this tiny circle, but it began with a hole in the ground.
Caretaker of the Hole
A man named Dick Fagan worked for the Oregon Journal, a newspaper with offices
at the intersection of S.W. Taylor and Front Street in Portland. One day
in 1945, Fagan looked out his office window and noticed a hole in the middle
of the street. The city had planned to put in a light pole, but the pole
never came.
Every day Fagan stared out his window at that hole. At first, it was just some dirt in a round piece of cement curbing, but seeds grow quickly in Portland. Soon weeds and grass clogged the hole.
Fagan appointed himself the caretaker of the hole. He planted flowers and named the space Mill Ends Park, after his daily newspaper column, “Mill Ends.”
Leprechauns at Play
Fagan began writing about the park in his daily column. He told imaginative
stories about a band of leprechauns who lived there, led by the crusty Paddy
O’Toole. According to Fagan, this was the only band of leprechauns west of
Ireland. Fagan claimed only he could see the leprechauns, but the people
of Portland loved the idea of a leprechaun colony living in a tiny park in
their city. On Saint Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1948, Mill Ends Park was officially
dedicated as a city park.
For 20 years, Fagan wrote newspaper stories about the leprechaun band in Mill Ends Park. Readers of the Oregon Journal learned about Paddy O’Toole’s crankiness, about the pot of gold the leprechauns hid from the city leaders, and about the merry times the leprechauns had each Saint Patrick’s Day.
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People began to send presents for the leprechauns and the park: a teeny Ferris wheel, a swimming pool, a diving board, tiny signs, flowers, even a miniature statue of Paddy O’Toole himself. The park became a favorite place to sing Christmas carols, play the bagpipes, and have Saint Patrick’s Day snail races.
A World Record
In 1969, in honor of Dick Fagan, Mill Ends Park was rededicated as a Portland
city park. In 1971, it was entered in the Guinness
Book of World Records as “The World’s Smallest Park.” Mill Ends Park is now more than 55 years
old. The city of Portland proudly claims that one thing is still certain:
Paddy O’Toole and his band of leprechauns are enjoying life in the smallest
park in the world.
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| Imagine this: You are visiting a city park. When you stretch your arms out, you reach farther than the park is wide. With one giant step, you walk past the park. You tower over this park like King Kong would tower over the skyscrapers in New York City. Why? Because this park is only as big as the top of your school desk! |
Your Own Park
- Create a small park in your yard or in a large pot filled with soil.
- Imagine who or what might live in this park.
- Write stories about your park to share with friends and family members.
- Take good care of your park, as Dick Fagan did for Mill Ends Park.
