Portland’s Leprechaun Playground
Looking for a bit of Irish luck? Check out the world’s tiniest park. Mill Ends Park consumes a circle measuring just two feet across in a median located at downtown Portland’s SW Naito Parkway and SW Taylor streets.
It has been rumored to be the home of leprechaun Patrick O’Toole and his clan for more than 60 years. The park caught the public’s attention in 1948 after Oregon Journal columnist Dick Fagan chronicled its development and wrote extensively about its magical residents. As the story goes, Fagan looked out the window of his newspaper office and spotted a leprechaun dancing around a hole meant for a lamppost. Irishman that he was, Fagan dashed outside and grabbed the green elf who was then obliged to grant his captor a wish. When Fagan requested a park of his very own, the wily leprechaun dubbed his hole a park and scampered away. At the time, Fagan authored a column, Mill Ends, (an apt name in a lumber town) and bestowed its name on his park. He also filled O’Toole’s “ravine” with flowers. When the columnist died in 1969, others rallied to the cause. At various times the manicured expanse has sported a minute Ferris wheel and a butterfly swimming pool complete with diving board. In 1976 it joined the ranks of official city parks.
After dodging traffic to take Mill Ends, you may want to relax in one
of the nation’s largest city parks. Click here to learn about Portland’s Forest Park—emphasis on the “Forest.”
