Entry No. 1 — the Portland file — filed under: strange monument
Mill Ends Park
A single tree in a 452-square-inch hole in a highway median — planted in 1948 by Oregon Journal columnist Dick Fagan, who wrote it up as the world's only leprechaun colony. Guinness certified it the world's smallest park until a Japanese park finally beat the record in 2025. Over the decades locals have staged miniature events here: butterfly wading pools, a tiny Ferris wheel, even horseshoes.
The story
In 1948, Oregon Journal columnist Dick Fagan got tired of staring out his office window at an abandoned municipal project. The city had carved a hole in the median of SW Naito Parkway meant for a light pole that never arrived. As weeds began filling the empty dirt, Fagan took matters into his own hands, planting flowers in the 452-square-inch hole and spinning elaborate tall tales in his column, "Mill Ends." He claimed the tiny patch was the world's only leprechaun colony, run by a head leprechaun named Patrick O'Toole.
The city leaned into the gag, and on St. Patrick's Day in 1976, Portland officially dedicated the two-foot-wide median cutout as a real city park. Over the decades, locals played along with absolute deadpan commitment. People staged miniature events inside the planter, installing a tiny Ferris wheel delivered by a full-sized crane, building miniature swimming pools for butterflies, laying out micro horseshoe pits, and leaving behind plastic action figures and tiny protest signs.
Guinness certified it as the world's smallest park for decades, a title Portland wore like a badge of honour until May 2025, when a miniature park in Japan officially dethroned it. Mill Ends now sits as the world's second-smallest park, but standing on a narrow concrete island squeezed between lanes of traffic to stare at a single small tree, the distinction hardly matters.
What it's like
Don't look for entrance gates, lawn chairs, or walking paths—you're looking for a two-foot circular patch of dirt sitting directly in the SW Naito Parkway median strip at SW Taylor Street. If you aren't actively searching the ground, you'll walk right past it thinking it's a standard municipal tree cutout. A visit takes roughly ninety seconds, usually spent dodging traffic to step up to the curb, peering down to see if locals left any tiny plastic figures or trinkets in the soil, and taking a quick photo before moving on.
The move: It takes ninety seconds to see, so make it the punchline of a walk — start at Waterfront Park, end at this absurdly small plot, and argue about whether it counts as a real park while you're standing in it.
- 📍 Downtown Portland
- 💸 Free
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Outdoors
Where: SW Naito Parkway & SW Taylor St, Portland, OR 97204
Hours: Added 2026-07-20 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- Kvinneakt — Pair two feet of municipal eccentricity with a bronze abstract nude that sparked its own 1970s transit mall controversy just three blocks away.
- Shanghai Tunnels Underground Tour (Old Town Pizza & Brewing) — Follow up a ninety-second median stop with a slice of pizza and a walk through 14,000 square feet of subterranean brick corridors.
- Zoobomb Pyle — Swap a single tree in a street median for a tower of spray-painted kids' bikes chained to a public rack half a mile away.
- The Skeleton Key Odditorium — Trade a microscopic outdoor garden for an indoor oddities collection packed with vampire mannequins and radium clocks.
Good to know
Where exactly is Mill Ends Park located?
It sits in the pedestrian median strip at the intersection of SW Naito Parkway and SW Taylor Street in downtown Portland.
Is it still the world's smallest park?
No. While Guinness held it as the world's smallest park for decades, a park in Japan took the title in May 2025, making Mill Ends the second-smallest.
How big is the park?
It is a circle measuring two feet in diameter, with a total surface area of 452 square inches (about 2.1 square feet).
Why is it named Mill Ends?
It was named after Dick Fagan's newspaper column, "Mill Ends," a term used in the lumber industry for leftover waste scraps of wood.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Wikipedia · portland.gov · kgw.com · opb.org · oregonencyclopedia.org · Reddit
last checked: 2026-07-20