The smallest park in the world is inhabited by lepèrechauns and equipped with a swimming pool and trampoline for butterflies. But the British protest: the smallest park is ours.
The “SMALLEST PARK in the world” with leprechauns and a butterfly pool
# A journalist returning from the war…
Journalist Dick Fagan, of Irish descent, participated in the Second World War in Europe. Upon his return to the city of Portland, Oregon, he returned to his previous job: journalist.
The Oregon Journal office he worked for overlooked a wide, heavily trafficked street, today’s Naito Parkway, and the view from his second-floor office was not at all pleasant.
He observed that a hole in the asphalt in the middle of the carriageway, left free to install a light pole, was not used for this purpose. Day after day this small space began to be colonized by weeds.
He then decided to take the initiative and start taking care of that tiny space of land by planting flowers.
# The life of the elves
Fagan told for more than 20 years from the columns of the Oregan Journal the life of a group of goblins who settled in that tiny piece of land, constituting the only colony of goblins in the west of Ireland, making this park more and more present in ‘ collective imagination of the city.
Even after Fagan’s death in 1969, the park has maintained its importance by being cared for and enriched with new elements, such as a small swimming pool and a springboard for butterflies, some statues, a Ferris wheel and even a flying saucer.
Since 1976, the year in which the park was dedicated to St. Patrick, it has been the center of the celebrations for the well-known Irish festival.
In December 2021, following work on the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s (PBOT) larger Better Naito Forever project, Mill Ends Park underwent a six-inch shift west to make room for a bicycle stall and a renewed sidewalk.
# 61 centimeters may not be enough: the record contested by the British
The park, with its 61 centimeters in diameter, has been recognized as the smallest in the world by the Guinness World Record since 1971.
This record, however, is undermined by the claims of a sports management company from Stafforshire, UK, which organizes the “shortest fun ride in the world” around Prince’s Park, Guinness World Records as Britain’s smallest park.
The reason given by the British is that Mill Ends Park cannot be considered a real park, but at most a “glorified flowerpot”.
At the moment, the recognition of the American park does not seem at risk, due to the importance it plays in the life of Portland citizens and its centrality in many official and historical events, such as the occupation of the Occupy Portland movement in 2011, as well as be officially recognized and maintained by public institutions like any other city park.
