Plenty of Portlanders have driven past it without noticing. In the middle of SW Naito Parkway at SW Taylor Street sits a ring of plants about two feet across. It is Mill Ends Park, an official city park, and for decades it held the Guinness record as the smallest park in the world.

A columnist and an empty hole

According to Portland Parks & Recreation, the story starts in 1946. Dick Fagan, a journalist back from World War II, noticed that a hole in the median meant for a light pole had never been used and was filling with weeds. He planted flowers in it.

Fagan wrote a newspaper column called "Mill Ends," and he named the patch after it, billing it as the "World's Smallest Park." The Oregon Encyclopedia identifies his paper as the Oregon Journal and describes the hole as one intended for a traffic light. The city says the park was dedicated on St. Patrick's Day in 1948, and Fagan kept writing about it until his death in 1969.

Leprechauns, butterflies and other traditions

Much of the park's charm comes from a long-running joke. In his columns, Fagan described a colony of leprechauns living in the park and claimed he was the only person who could see their leader. The city's own page carries the joke forward, listing a swimming pool with a diving board for butterflies, a miniature Ferris wheel and the occasional flying saucer.

None of that is meant literally. It is part of a playful tradition that Fagan started and that the city and visitors have kept alive, with small toys and figurines often left in the circle.

From record holder to runner-up

The city says Guinness first recognized Mill Ends as the world's smallest park in 1971, and it became an official city park on St. Patrick's Day in 1976. The park measures about 452 square inches.

That record no longer belongs to Portland. In early 2025, KPTV reported that Guinness now recognizes a tiny patch of grass and brick in Nagaizumi, Japan, instead. Mental Floss reported that the Japanese park covers about 2.5 square feet and was originally created in 1988 after a Nagaizumi town employee visited Oregon and saw Mill Ends, according to Guinness World Records. Mill Ends is still, by any measure, Portland's tiniest park.

A park that keeps moving, a little

The park has been relocated twice for roadwork. It was moved temporarily in 2006 during Naito Parkway construction and returned on March 16, 2007. It was removed again for PBOT's Better Naito Forever project, which added sidewalks and bikeways. As KATU reported in 2021 (republished by KUTV), a parks spokesman confirmed the move was "Seriously, six inches." The city dates the shift to December 2021 and says the park came back about six inches west, with a new cloverleaf border and a new sign.

How to see it safely

Mill Ends Park sits in a traffic median on SW Naito Parkway at SW Taylor Street (97204). Don't step into traffic or stand in the roadway for a photo. Use the marked crosswalks, and wait for the signal. The circle is easy to see and photograph from the crosswalk area.

There is nothing to book and no admission charge listed. The city's page lists no hours, and its one stated rule is that dogs must be leashed. Tom McCall Waterfront Park sits just across Naito, so a visit fits easily into a riverfront walk.

Details can change, so check the city's Mill Ends Park page before you go.