Imagine strolling with someone you love, hand-in-hand, in Mill Ends Park, the smallest park in the world

Great story, thanks OP!!!!!




The park was dedicated on St. Patrick's Day, 1948, as "the only leprechaun colony west of Ireland," according to its creator, Dick Fagan.[3] In 1948 the site that would become Mill Ends Park was intended to be the site for a light pole. When the pole failed to appear and weeds sprouted in the opening, Fagan, a columnist for the Oregon Journal, planted flowers in the hole and named it after his column in the paper, "Mill Ends" (a reference to leftover irregular pieces of wood at lumber mills). Fagan's office in the Journal building overlooked the median in the middle of the busy thoroughfare that ran in front of the building (then known as SW Front Avenue).


Fagan told the story of the park's origin: He looked out the window and spotted a leprechaun digging in the hole. He ran down and grabbed the leprechaun, which meant that he had earned a wish. Fagan said he wished for a park of his own; but since he had not specified the size of the park in his wish, the leprechaun gave him the hole.[4] Over the next two decades, Fagan often featured the park and its head leprechaun, in his whimsical column. Fagan claimed to be the only person who could see the head leprechaun, Patrick O'Toole.

Fagan published a threat by O'Toole about the 11 o'clock curfew set on all city parks. O'Toole dared the mayor to try to evict him and his followers from Mill Ends, and threatened a leprechaun curse on him should he attempt to do so. Subsequently, no legal action was taken, and the leprechauns were allowed to stay in the park after hours.