World's Smallest Park, Portland's Mill Ends Park, Is Back Open

Portland OR

19 January, 2022

11:49 PM

Description

PORTLAND, OR — The world's smallest park is once again open for visitors. Mill Ends Park, all 452 square inches of it, was reopened. An official reopening – complete with ribbon-cutting, will be scheduled in a few weeks. If you want to go and think you know where it is, think twice. As part of the city's Better Naito Forever Project, the park was renovated and moved. Six inches. "In Portland, we've long embraced the quirky, creative spirit that drives our city," Portland Parks Commissioner Carmen Rubio said. "Mill Ends Park embodies that spirit. Bike and pedestrian safety improvements in the Better Naito Forever project will now allow more Portlanders to safely visit this iconic park and the leprechauns living there." The park, considered the world's smallest by Guinness Book of World Records, has been closed since the city started work on the Better Naito Forever Project. The result is more bike paths, redone sidewalks, and more space for people to visit the park. It's been there since 1946 when it was created by reporter Dick Fagan who worked for the Oregon Journal, which had its offices across the street. It was made an official city park 30 years later. Fagan maintained that the park was the home to a family of Leprechauns, the only such home outside of Ireland. To honor the Leprechaun family, the parks department installed a cloverleaf design on the aark's border.