Mill Ends Park: Portland's Tiny Leprechaun Colony and World's Smallest Park

Mill Ends Park: Portland's Tiny Leprechaun Colony and World's Smallest Park

Columnist Dick Fagan, staring from his Oregon Journal office, noticed a weed patch in a median strip on Naito Parkway—space meant for a lamppost that never arrived. On St. Patrick's Day 1948, he planted flowers, christened it "Mill Ends Park, the smallest park in the world," and populated it with "a colony of leprechauns, the only colony west of the Emerald Isle," chronicling their doings in his column "Mill Ends."

Fagan died in 1969, but the park lives on: recognized by Guinness Book of World Records (1971), dedicated as a city park (1976), rebuilt and replanted many times.

So next time you stare out the window, look closely: leprechauns may be scarce, but Dick Fagan proved magic lurks in the everyday. Naito Parkway and Taylor Street. Portland Parks & Recreation: (503) 823-2223.